The EESC issues between 160 and 190 opinions and information reports a year.
It also organises several annual initiatives and events with a focus on civil society and citizens’ participation such as the Civil Society Prize, the Civil Society Days, the Your Europe, Your Say youth plenary and the ECI Day.
Here you can find news and information about the EESC'swork, including its social media accounts, the EESC Info newsletter, photo galleries and videos.
The EESC brings together representatives from all areas of organised civil society, who give their independent advice on EU policies and legislation. The EESC's326 Members are organised into three groups: Employers, Workers and Various Interests.
The EESC has six sections, specialising in concrete topics of relevance to the citizens of the European Union, ranging from social to economic affairs, energy, environment, external relations or the internal market.
In this opinion, the EESC suggests several changes to the Commission's proposal, to make the text fully compliant with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Namely, the Committee suggest that if the adoption of a legal measure against a vulnerable person clearly violates human rights and international law, a Member State should be obliged not recognise such a measure.
This initiative reports on the application and impact of EU rules on payment services, as required by the review clause of the Second Payment Services Directive and announced in the Commission´s retail payments strategy of 2020.
Vulnerable groups pay a proportionally higher price of the consequences of climate change although they contribute less to it. In this opinion, the EESC calls for the development of a comprehensive EU political and social strategy to be able to respond proactively to climate emergency, stressing on the social aspects of the just transition. To do so, the EESC recommends, among other measures, the EU Social Climate Fund and the EU Climate Adjustment Fund be supplemented with additional instruments.
EESC opinion: The climate crisis and its effect on vulnerable groups
The EESC is a fervent defender of multilateralism and a rules-based world order. Its External Relations Section deals with many topics relevant to the broad spectrum covered by the United Nations and its specialised agencies, while many EESC opinions refer to core international principles and regularly cite the United Nations.
EESC opinion: Strengthening Multilateralism and core international principles for a rules-based order in a rapidly changing world – The importance of Civil Society contribution to the UN system
One of the main conclusions of the 8th Cohesion Report is that although cohesion and convergence among regions in the European Union has improved, there are still remaining gaps especially in less developed regions related with their territorial characteristics. EU islands, mountain areas and sparsely populated areas still face many challenges on their growth and income and disparities exist.
In these regions, there are still a lot of gaps in terms of employment and investment, social exclusion is evident and gender disparities have not diminished.
EESC opinion: Main challenges faced by EU islands, and mountainous and sparsely populated areas
The Toy Safety Directive sets out the safety requirements that toys must meet before they can be marketed in the EU. This initiative aims to protect children better against risks in toys, particularly from chemicals. It builds on work such as the chemicals strategy for sustainability, and on an evaluation of the current toy safety rules completed in 2020. At the same time, it aims to strengthen the Single Market for toys.
EESC opinion: Revision of the toy safety directive