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.
The EESC is strongly of the view that agriculture is an extremely important sector for the economic, social and regional development of the partnership countries. Meeting the objectives set will require favourable agricultural development. Investing in agriculture and developing the sector are also key conditions for reducing poverty in rural areas.
EESC Opinion: The Eastern Partnership and the eastern dimension of EU policies, with emphasis on agriculture
The financial crisis and irresponsible lending have caused an increase in defaults and foreclosures as borrowers have found their loans increasingly unaffordable.The focus of this proposal is to ensure that all consumers purchasing a property or taking out a loan secured by their home are adequately protected against the risks. The opinion is of particular interest for financial professions involved in mortgage credit activities as well as citizens facing such kind of operation.
The EESC reiterates its firm support to the goal of better energy efficiency as a central part of the Europe 2020 strategy and points out that energy efficiency and saving are predominantly dependent on action by citizens, business and workers and their change of behaviour. The Committee emphasises the responsibility of the Member States, with the EU creating a common framework. It underlines the importance of choosing the right instruments and believes that voluntary agreements are useful while compulsory measures are needed when positive incentives do not work. The EESC does not support setting a binding overall target for energy efficiency but recommends that efforts are focused on achieving real results. Finally it emphasises the need to ensure financial support and investment to realise the big potential in new Member States.
Energy efficiency – Changing behaviour and ways to achieve results
The EESC welcomes the Commission document COM(2011) 25 final Tackling the Challenges in Commodity Markets and on Raw Materials and The European raw materials' initiative (RMI) as an important step to tackle this vital issue.
EESC thus urges the EC to monitor the situation in international trade of critical raw materials (as listed in COM(2011) 25 final and with regular updating of this list). In addition, we endorse the need to continue in negotiation at the international level (WTO) to promote free trade also in commodity markets.
The EESC urges a more active foreign policy regarding security of raw materials for EU industry.
Tackling the challenges in commodity markets and on raw materials
The EESC calls for financial education to become a compulsory subject on the school curriculum, and this education should be followed up in training and retraining programmes for workers. As a subject, financial education should encourage responsible saving and promote socially responsible financial products.
EESC opinion: Financial education and responsible consumption of financial products
In its opinion the EESC recommends a number of concrete measures to remove the most pressing cross-border tax problems that citizens face.
These measures are in particular aimed at removing double taxation and enhancing administrative simplification in cross-border situations (such as the establishment of one-stop services, the setting up of a Cross-Border Taxation Office).