With the launch of the 2025 European Semester cycle the European commission has published the "2025 European Semester - Autumn package" in December 2024. The 2025 European Semester - Autumn Package outlines economic and social policy priorities for the EU to ensure sustainable prosperity and competitiveness. It highlights the EU’s recent resilience while emphasizing the need to address structural barriers to growth. The EU is committed to ensure sustainable prosperity and competitiveness while strengthening its social market economy and safeguarding its sovereignty, economic security and global influence. The EESC's opinion on the 2025 European Semester - Autumn package is due to be adopted at the EESC plenary session of February 2025.
The EESC calls for an action plan to properly implement the European Skills Agenda and its twelve proposed actions. Significant political efforts and systemic reforms in education and training and smart investments in human capital are needed to tackle skills-related challenges. Social partners, education providers and civil society organisations should work more together to design skills strategies that best respond to the needs of the labour market and society in general. The EESC points at the importance of improving EU and Member State initiatives regarding employee training in the workplace and creating the right incentives for employers to continue investing in the training of their workforce, with the involvement of social partners.
Download — ETSK:n lausunto: The impact of education on wages and labour productivity
While the recovery after COVID-19 crisis is a top priority, the EESC stresses that this should not steer the EU away from its medium and long-term objectives, as outlined in the European Green Deal, 2020 Sustainable Growth Strategy, and the European Pillar for Social Rights. There is a need for a resilient, technology-driven European economy that is defined by the protection of the environment. The EESC underlines that strategies aimed at enhanced economic sustainability need to be developed around productivity, but they cannot be allowed to happen at the expense of workers' rights and social development. The EESC advocates for re-thinking supply chains, underlines that social aspects should be emphasised, start-ups should be encouraged and that the cornerstone of sustainable economic growth in the EU should be the creation and development of a truly circular economy. Open dialogue with social partners and civil society remains key to setting the economic direction.
Download — ETSK:n lausunto: Enhancing sustainable economic growth across the EU
Download — ETSK:n lausunto: Tapping the workplace productivity potential: the role of social dialogue in promoting innovation in digital economy (own-initiative opinion)
