Financial Crisis

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  • The EESC advocates a fiscal stimulus focusing on public investment, while also prioritising structural reforms to enhance productivity and support the creation of quality jobs

    The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) disagrees with the European Commission's proposal for an overall broadly neutral fiscal stance in 2018, advocating a moderate positive fiscal stance of around 0.5% of GDP instead.

  • Reference number
    9/2017

    It is vital to foster economic growth; only if Europe has a strong economy, can it better face the political and social challenges that stand before it. This was one of the main messages of the EESC opinions adopted yesterday in Brussels. The EESC calls for more investment– both private and public – directly in the countries that need it most. The EU body representing Civil Society also finds that the Juncker plan is not enough ...

  • On 7th February, as we mark the 25th anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Economic and Social Committee turns to political leaders, the European civil society organisations which we represent, and all European citizens, with a call: the call for social and economic solidarity, which is urgently needed across Europe. 25 years ago, Europe was in turmoil: the aftermath of the Cold War; the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany; the path of Eastern European countries to democracy, all shaped the zeitgeist. Yet, on this momentous day in 1992, the 12 nations of the European Communities signed this European Treaty, thus creating the European Union as we know it and its greatest achievement, the single currency. Today, the geo-political landscape ...

  • Reference number
    4/2017

    There is no viable alternative to a more political Eurozone, focusing more on the big priorities that matter for its citizens than on specific numerical targets and technical issues. Once again, the EESC calls on the European political leaders to accelerate the process of deepening Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in order to ensure more convergence among the Member States and to make the EU as a whole more prosperous, competitive and resilient to external shocks, within a concept of shared sovereignty. These were among the main messages of the high-level debate on What future for the euro ...

  • Reference number
    3/2017

    The European Economic and Social Committee held a debate today on the state of the European economy and the prospects for deepening the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs. The EESC members sent through Commissioner Moscovici a clear message to the upcoming Eurogroup, Ecofin and European Council meetings that the European citizens and economic actors urgently need to see a sense of ownership and direction by the European leadership – notably when discussing the missing blocks of a genuine EMU. The EU integration process and the euro can ...

  • Reference number
    72/2016

    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 ...

  • When the international economic and financial crisis struck, it exposed the structural limitations and contradictions in EMU, depriving the euro of its propensity to attract. The crisis proves that it takes much more than a set of "accountancy" rules such as the stability pact and others, because the underlying problems are not technical but economic and political. Some progress has been made in the past few years by putting in place new rules and mechanisms, notably parts of a Banking Union, but the construction works are far from being completed yet, which contributes to the persisting climate of uncertainty among citizens and business, and hinders the growth potential of the European economy ...

  • Reference number
    19/2016

    At its plenary meeting on 17 March 2016, the European Economic and Social Committee gave a clear message to the European Commission, calling on it to draw up conclusive proposals which go further in completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union without delay. In a package of opinions, the Committee put forward the points of view of the social partners and civil society on the package of proposals for Deepening EMU which the Commission published at the end of last year.

  • EESC member Carmelo Cedrone takes part in an international conference in the US

    On 2-3 November 2015, a conference to discuss the relations between the Eurozone and the Americas was held at the University of Texas at Austin. The conference brought together representatives of several universities in Europe, North and South America, the European Parliament, the US Senate, etc. They addressed very interesting questions, in particular the problem of debtor-creditor relationships in the modern world, the Eurozone matters, its economic and political governance, etc. The EESC was represented by Carmelo Cedrone, vice-president of the ECO section.