EESC European Economic and Social Committee
The first European Day of Social Economy Enterprises brought together the EESC's institutional partners, as well as several stakeholders in order to have a comprehensive view of the situation, create synergies and discuss next meaures and actions to be taken in order to fully unleash the potential of the sector. The event entailed three workshops to allow participants to have their say.
The agro-food supply chain connects important and diverse sectors of the European economy that are essential for economic, social and environmental welfare as well as for the health of European citizens. Over recent years, there has been a shift in bargaining power in the supply chain, mostly to the advantage of the retail sector and to the detriment of primary producers. The position of the most vulnerable actors, such as farmers, should therefore be addressed, in particular by ensuring that prices that allow the farmer to make a fair profit are paid throughout the agro-food supply chain and by putting an end to unfair trading practices.
The functional economy focuses on the use of a product rather than its ownership. Specifically, with the functional economy model, a company sells the right to use a product of which it maintains ownership. The famous example is Michelin, which no longer sells tires for fleets of company cars, but supplies "mobility services" consisting of repairing, retreading and in some cases exchanging tires. The economic outcome is that the company has an interest in making its products last as long as possible because the price is based on usage (in this case, the number of kilometres driven) and thus in reducing waste.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) will be opening its doors to the general public between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
This year, the EESC is focussing on what civil society organisations are doing in response to the migration crisis in Europe.
Under the common interinstitutional slogan of “United in diversity”, the Committee will also showcase its work on economic and social policy for the European Union, its work on sustainable development and its efforts to support participatory democracy in Europe and throughout the world.
On the day’s programme are a variety of information stands, fun activities for all, a photo booth, a children’s corner and musical events.
The 18th edition of the European Consumer Day was held in Brussels on 10 March 2016.
We discussed the Better Regulation initiative, what should be taken into account by the Commission and other institutions in implementing this new strategy and how to make sure that consumers do not lose out.
The conference aimed to highlight work undertaken by the EESC and the GO4 projects’ Consortiums and stimulate debate between representatives of the main stakeholder groups involved in research and innovation. The interplay between RRI and Commissioner Carlos Moedas’ key priorities of “Open Innovation, Open Science and Openness to the World”, has be addressed. RRI also has contributions to make to the current European Commission’s 10 high-level priorities (from a new boost for jobs, to democratic governance).
The Go4 projects were ready to present their findings, conceptual developments, concrete messages and policy recommendations to contribute to the development of evidence-based research policy in Europe and its member states. By highlighting current practice and factors that influence the success of RRI, the conference has provided insights into good practice that can be the basis of future policy.
The ex-post evaluation of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development (2007-2013) (FP7) was due to be completed by end-2015. Evaluations gathered evidence to assess how well a specific intervention performed and draw conclusions on whether the EU intervention continues to be justified or should be modified.
With a view to ensuring the transparency of the evaluation process and to allow for a wide range of views to be considered, the Commission launched an online public consultation, which ran from February to May 2015.
Further to the analysis of the responses to the public consultation, the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee organized an event to present the results of the FP7 public consultation and to provide a forum for a further exchange of views. This was be held at the EESC premises, in Brussels, on 27 October 2015
