European Economic and Social Committee
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is currently working on an own-initiative opinion entitled Lessons learned for avoiding the severity of austerity policies in the EU, with the aim to consolidate the lessons learned from the experience with austerity measures during a period of crisis management with a view to identifying possible preventive measures and alternative public policies.
5 organisations are awarded the 2017 EESC Civil Society Prize
The EESC is pleased to announce the five winners of the 9th edition of the Civil Society Prize, which rewards initiatives which aim at the labour market integration of newcomers and all the people who are distant from the labour market and require specific support.
Debate with Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
Award ceremony for the Civil Society Prize on Thursday 7 December at 11.30 a.m. (time to be confirmed)
The purpose of this public hearing was to gather recommendations for the opinion that the EESC is currently working on. This opinion would be principally addressed to the political decision-makers at different levels in order to practically align the policies to the needs of non-state climate actors.
47 million people in Europe work in regulated professions i.e. 22% of the working population. Liberal professions undeniably play a key role in our economies and societies. With this in mind, the EESC Group III "Various interests" decided to organise a meeting to discuss the challenges faced by these professions and to lay the foundations for ensuring that they achieve their potential in the European Union in the coming years.
We are now in the third year since the Goals were launched and not enough has been done to ensure they will be achieved by 2030. This event will present and examine Eurostat's new EU tailored SDG Report and engage participants in a discussion on how to best address various SDGs requiring concerted support for their further implementation.
In September 2016, the EESC adopted an own-initiative opinion on "The rights of live-in care workers". It was a first policy document at the European level dealing with the sector of live-in care work in Europe. As follow-up to this initiative, the EESC will carry out 5 country visits to countries of origin and destination of live-in care workers (United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Poland) to deepen the research on labour and work conditions of these persons and the quality of care delivery. The findings will be presented in a report to be released by the EESC later in 2018.
The European Economic and Social Committee is organising a hearing as part of its follow-up work related to its opinion on Improving the effectiveness of EU policies for SMEs, adopted in July 2017.
The hearing takes place on 29 November 2017 from 9:30 to 13:00 , in Budapest, Hungary. It is part of a set of follow-up hearings to be carried out in 6 EU Member States.
The main objective of the hearing is to debate the effectiveness and efficiency of the EU policies for SMEs and gather valuable input and feedback from Hungarian stakeholders on the matter with a view to finding ways in which they can be improved. Particular emphasis will be put on the recommendations that have been outlined in the EESC opinion with the aim of implementing them at national level.
Roma still remain the most underrepresented group on the labour market, with high numbers of unemployment. Due to the combination of various factors, such as poverty and deprivation, low levels of education and skills and discrimination in both education and employment, there are still serious structural barriers for Roma. Therefore they do not benefit from mainstream or targeted measures/initiatives. The Roma Platform is a high-level event that will provide an opportunity to discuss education and employment for Roma.
Objectives: To contribute to a broad public debate on the transition towards a new European ("post E2020") Strategy, addressing the global transformation of the economy and society through digitalisation and accelerated technological changes (the Fourth Industrial Revolution) in order to manage a transition towards a more sustainable European future. This will feed into concrete policy guidance for the European Commission and Parliament and contribute to an action plan for Civil Society Organisations to help them align and strengthen political and operational priorities.
