The EESC proposes to launch a European Care Guarantee, which would ensure life-long access to affordable quality healthcare and care services for everyone living in the EU. It also underlines the importance of supporting families in their fundamental role as caregivers and asks for adopting specific measures to tackle Gender equality, namely addressing gender stereotypes, attracting more men in the sector and ensure better distribution of care within households.
In addition, the Committee highlights the need for a life cycle approach promoting healthy and active ageing and calls for the development of a European Strategy for Older Persons.
Download — EESC opinion: The European Care strategy
The Covid-19 pandemic is strongly affecting the Euro-Mediterranean region, creating new challenges and exacerbating pre-existing ones. The pandemic has highlighted fundamental weaknesses in institutions, economies and health systems. Civil society plays a key role in the reconstruction and resilience of the whole region.
Download — EESC opinion: COVID-19: The role of civil society in the reconstruction and resilience of the Euro-Mediterranean region
This opinion underlines that by creating a fertile ground for women entrepreneurship and the adequate financial and legislative instruments, such as gender budgeting, we can create an inclusive financial ecosystem in the EU and Member States and advance faster towards gender equality. It suggests that diversity of teams with a specific focus on women should be a criterion for receiving public funding. This Opinion also calls for an ambitious vision from the European Commission and the European institutions on gender budgeting and gender lens investing. It suggests that the EC publishes a gender impact assessment of the annual EU budget and creates a task force to include gender mainstreaming EU objectives in the next MFF and in the mid-term review of the current MFF.
Download — EESC opinion: Gender lens investing as a way to improve gender equality in the European Union
This own-initiative opinion will offer an overview of how gender equality and economic empowerment has been built into the RRF Regulation and will focus on gender-oriented public investments and programmes foreseen in NRRPs on targeted recovery plans to support women’s participation in the labour market, while giving concrete recommendations to ensure gender-based investments.
Download — EESC opinion: Gender-based investments in national recovery and resilience plans
The Commission is proposing an initiative which will aim to enhancing the Single Market’s resilience, by providing adequate information, coordination and communication mechanisms between EU institutions, Member States and stakeholders adapted to different phases of a crisis; providing the means to ensure such resilience including availability of products and services relevant for a certain type of crisis and guaranteeing as much as possible the free circulation of goods, services and persons.
Download — EESC opinion: Single market emergency instrument
