European Economic and Social Committee
The proposed initiative aims to improve access to the labour market and social inclusion by supporting Member States in integrating the social economy into their socio-economic policies and creating support measures and a favourable environment for the sector.
The purpose of the opinion is to contribute to the further development of the foresight in the EU policy-making. The opinion will comment on the Commission's 2023 Annual foresight Report, which focused on the sustainability and people's wellbeing at the heart of Europe's Open Strategic Autonomy.
At the request of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the EESC is drawing up this opinion to suggest recommendations on how to tackle inequalities, foster upwards social convergence and strengthen social security systems and ensure its long-term affordability, in an EU economic governance framework/European Semester defined around debt sustainability, productive investments and reforms. This opinion is also focusing on the implications of such a framework for the European Semester, and the further strengthening of the social pillar herein. Finally, the opinion also looks at ways of continuing to further develop fiscal instruments that have a stabilising role at the European level, based e.g. on the experience of SURE.
Exploratory opinion requested by the Spanish presidency of the EU on the competitiveness of EU's industry.
The main objective of this opinion is to deliver, eight years after its official launch, an EESC assessment of the state of play of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a soft-power tool through which China has assumed a new strategic geopolitical position on the world chessboard. In this context, the EESC needs to investigate what impact the BRI can have on the EU's policies such as twin transition, open strategic autonomy, access to critical technologies and critical raw materials, security and defence, TEN-T network, foreign direct investments, EU screening, etc.