Today the EESC adopted an opinion on the outline of a European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) proposed by the European Commission to build "a deeper and fairer Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)" and achieve a "triple A social Europe". The debate took place in the presence of Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, and Maria João Rodrigues, the European Parliament's rapporteur on the EPSR. The opinion sets out the Committee's initial ideas and ...
Last week the Council of Ministers decided to extend the European fund for strategic investments (EFSI 2.0), with an additional half a trillion euros of investments by 2020. The EESC Plenary today called for its immediate implementation, a geographically balanced coverage across the EU and ensuring the involvement of private capital. According to Alberto Mazzola, EESC rapporteur on EFSI: "We propose, while guaranteeing the proper use, an ever greater involvement of private capital: the bond market ...
The EESC President, Georges Dassis, met today with the First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, to deliver the EESC contribution to the Commission's 2017 Work Programme. President Dassis used this occasion to emphasise that the European Union had to regain momentum in 2017. He said that "the European Commission must strive to restore a spirit of solidarity and responsibility ...
Yesterday 51 new and renewed delegates attended the first meeting of the EESC Consultative Committee on Industrial Change (CCMI) under the new EESC mandate. CCMI delegates represent the different economic and social sectors and civil society organisations who are affected by or involved in bringing about industrial change. They make up one half of the members of the CCMI and will work alongside the same number of EESC memberswho sit on the CCMI. They will remain in office until 31 December 2020.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), together with the Luxembourg Presidency, the European Parliament and the Commission, organised a high-level conference on the Transatlantic Trade, Investment and Partnership Agreement (TTIP) that the United States and Europe have been negotiating for nearly two and half years. Participants called for more transparency, better involvement of social partners and in particular for comprehensive information and communication on all impacts of TTIP – both positive and negative - as discussions showed that many questions remain open, which Commissioner Malmström strove to answer as clearly as possible. "Only an agreement which has the broad support of the social partners and civil society will be a good and sustainable agreement", was the bottom line.
