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 EU-Japan DAG hosted a workshop: "Promoting human rights and environmental due diligence together" on 9 April 2024 following a Joint Dialogue with Civil Society in Tokyo on 8 April. The workshop's objective was to foster dialogue between EU and Japan civil society representatives, focusing on best practices and a solution-oriented approach in an area of importance to the implementation of the TSD-chapter of the EU-Japan EPA. Human rights and environmental due diligence are topics of common interest, as the EU and Japan share values and want to secure resilient supply chains so as to do business in a sustainable way.
The Civil Society Organisations' Group will hold a thematic debate on the Nature Restoration Law during its meeting on 20 March 2024, from 12:00 to 13:00. You can follow the debate live via the streaming on this event page.
In the context of the upcoming European elections in June 2024, the high-level discussion at the NAT section meeting on 26 February will contribute to set the agenda of the new Commission. Building on previous EESC opinions and events on "The sustainable economy we need" and "Beyond GDP measures", the debate will feed into the own-initiative opinion on A Blueprint for a European Green and Social Deal, based on a wellbeing economy.
The 10th meeting of the EU Domestic Advisory Group (DAG) under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), and second meeting of the new 2023-25 term, took place on 9 January, 2024.
Priorities for the Future Leadership of the European Union to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in a Fragmented and Multipolar World
Location
Brussels
Belgium
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the EESC will host a high-level hybrid event on Europe’s future and the SDGs during the meeting of the EESC NAT Section. The event will aim to provide relevant contributions on how the EU can strengthen its SDG leadership in the context of the upcoming European elections in June 2024 and UN Summit of the Future in September 2024. The event will notably feature the launch of the 5th edition of the Europe Sustainable Development Report which tracks annually since 2019 the performance of all EU member states and partner countries on the SDGs and is co-designed with civil society. The discussions will also aim to highlight opportunities and mechanisms for further engagement with civil society organizations and the private sector to advance the SDGs in Europe.
The event will present a grassroots and local government perspective on the European Green Deal, with ECOLISE and ICLEI Europe sharing insights into the handprint of community-led initiatives and local governments in addressing the planetary crisis.
The other side of trade: a bottom-up approach to sustainable development
Event type
Conference
Location
EESC
Brussels
Belgium
The EESC hosted the 2nd Civil Society Forum on Trade and Sustainable Development : ' The other side of trade: a bottom-up approach to sustainable development' on 14 November 2023. Moving on from the fundamental question "Have we been listening?", the event examined Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) from different angles with a common approach: inclusive, bottom-up and solution-oriented.
The hearing aims to gather the views of different civil society actors on the steps the EU should take to establish a comprehensive, just transition policy framewor.