The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) suggests that the EU should develop a certification for trustworthy AI applications, to be delivered by an independent body after testing the products for key requirements such as resilience, safety, and absence of prejudice, discrimination or bias. The proposal has been put forward in two recent EESC opinions assessing the European Commission's ethical guidelines on AI.
At its last plenary session, held on 17 October 2018, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an opinion aiming to improve the EU space programme's outcomes and raise its profile. The EESC supports the EU's efforts to remain a major independent space power, but calls for more investment in research, start-ups and business incubators as well as for a consistent application of the "European preference" principle. Clear emphasis should be placed on space mining research and the benefits that space activities could provide in terms of sustainable development.
Commissioner Andrus Ansip focused his intervention on the challenges and benefits of Artificial Intelligence. From the Workers' Group, these benefits can only be achieved if the challenges linked to human factors and working conditions are also properly addressed.
Marcos Peña focused on the key role of participative democracy in addressing the challenges in today's volatile world and particularly in the negotiations that will shape the future of work. He saluted the representatives of European civil society in the EESC, the Spanish ESC and the other national ESCs as players who underpin the social and economic cohesion of the continent by using dialogue and compromise to find shared solutions to common problems.
The successful experience of Estonia with E-government as well as questions concerning cybersecurity were discussed during the EESC conference on the “Future development of E-government in the EU” held in Tallinn. The EESC hosted a debate on the priorities of the incoming Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU which have as an overarching goal to improve the ...
The EESC President, Georges Dassis, began his official visit to Estonia on 15 June by meeting with Minister for Education and Research Mailis Reps. The two discussed the challenges and recent successes of ...
The EEA Consultative Committee (EEA CC) adopted two resolutions, on the Social Dimension of the EEA and the European Pillar of Social Rights, and on Digitalisation and its impact on jobs and skills. In the first resolution, the EEA CC underlines that the social dimension of the Internal Market and the initiatives under the European Pillar of Social Rights are also ...
Innovative solutions that improve people's lives, platforms that better communicate these solutions, and address ethical, social and environmental issues are the pillars of responsible research and innovation (RRI). Today RRI is one of the answers to meet the needs arising from society for safer, more ethically acceptable and better quality health solutions. A conference held at the EESC on 18-19 May explored how civil society is involved in this process and how to make its contribution more effective.
Today the findings of the stakeholder consultation carried out by the EC in view of the mid-term evaluation of Horizon 2020 were revealed publicly for the first time at a joint event organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD).
Today the European Economic and Social Committee's plenary assembly welcomed Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for research, science and innovation, for a debate on Horizon 2020, the EU's most ambitious programme for research and innovation ever, intended to provide approximately 80 billion euros-worth in funding to European R&I projects over the 2014-2020 period. In his opening remarks EESC President Georges Dassis observed that R&I is the poor relative ...
