This opinion explores the potential of the bioeconomy and how policies can ensure its long-term competitiveness and investment security, while safeguarding nature. It will present civil society's views on further goals which include increasing resource-efficient and circular use of biological resources, securing a sustainable supply of biomass, both within the EU and from international sources, and strengthening the EU’s position in the rapidly expanding global bioeconomy.
Our social, political and economic strength comes from our unity in diversity: Equality and non-discrimination are core values and fundamental rights in the EU. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) welcomes the Union of Equality: LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026–2030 as a vital framework but finds that persistent discrimination, violence, weak enforcement and growing anti-LGBTIQ+ backlash continue to undermine progress across the EU. It stresses that implementation gaps, insufficient funding, legal fragmentation and lack of reliable data limit the Strategy’s effectiveness, particularly for trans, non-binary and intersex persons and those facing intersectional discrimination.
The Commission presents a proposal to enhance the control of drug precursors, the chemical substances that are used by both legitimate industries and in the production of illicit drugs. As Europe’s drug market evolves, the proposal strengthens authorities to respond to emerging drugs and production processes.
This initiative aims to simplify EU legislation on medical devices and diagnostics to enhance competitiveness, foster innovation and ensure proportionate, cost-effective safety requirements while maintaining high levels of patient protection and public health.
In response to the successful European Citizens' Initiative, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has adopted an own-initiative opinion calling on the European Commission to introduce a legally binding EU-wide ban on conversion practices by including such practices as 'EU crimes' and recognising them as hate crimes. The EESC strongly condemns any practices aimed at changing, suppressing or erasing a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression, considering them incompatible with human dignity and in breach of the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. The EESC calls for a comprehensive and precisely defined ban covering both children and adults, all public and private actors, and the advertisement of such practices. It recommends that the prohibition explicitly includes sex characteristics, in order to protect intersex individuals from non-consensual and non-therapeutic interventions.
