The EESC opinion on the 2026 European Semester-Spring Package delivers a clear final political message: Europe does not primarily need new priorities. It needs to implement more effectively those already agreed, thus also ensuring a balance between economic, social and environmental objectives. The European Semester should therefore evolve into Europe’s strategic delivery framework for sustainable competitiveness, ensuring that reforms, investments and governance deliver tangible benefits for citizens, businesses, workers and future generations. Success should increasingly be measured not only by the quality of policy recommendations, but by the quality of their implementation and their contribution to productivity, resilience, social cohesion, quality jobs and long-term prosperity.
The opinion will examine how the EU’s institutional framework could become more agile and effective for a deeper and better-functioning Single Market by 2028, to ensure that it can respond more effectively to rapid geopolitical, technological and economic changes.
The European Commission’s Annual Competition Report 2025 summarises the key policy and enforcement developments in EU competition policy in 2025, covering State aid, antitrust, mergers, the Foreign Subsidies Regulation and the Digital Markets Act.
The European Innovation Act aims to create cross-sectoral legal framework conditions to remove barriers for bringing innovative ideas to market in all sectors.
This timely opinion will examine civil society proposal on how to reform climate governance, including decision-making processes, negotiation frameworks, and the participation and impact of civil society organisations at global climate summits. It will also assess how international climate litigation is shaping climate negotiations and may further influence the governance of the UNFCCC, particularly in the light of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 23 July 2025.
Download — Dictamen de la Sección del CESE: Reforming climate governance in light of recent international judicial decisions
The EU emissions trading system (ETS) is the key policy tool for achieving the EU's climate targets. The existing ETS (ETS1) aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial and energy installations, aircraft operators and maritime transport by setting a price on carbon through a cap-and-trade system.
The Commission's ETS revision proposal is expected to address several issues, notably the role of carbon dioxide removals, the expansion of the current scope to additional sectorsand GHGs not yet covered by the ETS, new rules on how to account for non-permanent carbon capture and utilisation, and the risk of carbon leakage in sectors not covered by the carbon border adjustment mechanism.
The opinion addresses Europe’s persistent innovation commercialisation gap: while the EU excels in research and patents, it struggles to turn scientific excellence into globally leading companies.
Together the Information Report ECO/711 and the Resolution ECO/712 are a continuation of the European Semester Group's (ESG) work to consult annually national economic and social councils, social partners and civil society organisations from EU Member States on reform and investment proposals made in the context of the European Semester and their implementation in the Member States.
The Information Report aims to collect the views of social partners and civil society organisations in the Member States on the reform and investment proposals and their implementation, in particular those indicated in the 2026 Country-Specific Recommendations.
