On 12-13 September 2024, the NAT Bureau meeting was held in Hungary where members exchanged views and experiences with various stakeholders on how to foster sustainable and resilient food systems at times of growing crises.
recommends creating a dedicated EU investment fund within the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). This fund could be supported by contributions from member states, new EU own resources, and joint debt issuance, and should allocate resources based on clear social criteria;
emphasises the importance of public funding as a catalyst to unlock private investments, particularly in sectors that are not yet profitable, such as green energy and strategic infrastructure like energy grids and hydrogen pipelines;
advocates for complementing the EU’s fiscal rules (Stability and Growth Pact) with a robust investment strategy, ensuring long-term climate and digital transition goals are met without compromising fiscal sustainability;
An ageing society faces distinct challenges compared to a society with a more balanced age distribution. Upholding the right to age with dignity, along with a life-cycle approach is essential to addressing these challenges;
The EESC’s proposals for achieving more sustainable societal development include: striving for higher birth rates, exploiting the full potential of the labour market, making work pay by having high-quality, well-paid and productive jobs, improving working conditions, reforming pension and care systems to ensure accessibility for everyone, enhancing legal migration pathways to attract in particular foreign talent supported by bold integration measures, working towards upward regional and social cohesion and analysing the factors driving people to leave the EU;
The EESC recommends that the European Commissioner for Demography be supported by an appropriate structure within the European Commission, and that a European agency for demography be set up to ensure research and statistics in this field, while at the same time ensuring collaboration with and sufficient financing for existing agencies like Cedefop and Eurofound. This would facilitate the integration of demographic consideration in all relevant policy areas and impact assessments.
