• affirms that the incorporation of the CSRs in the RRPs has increased the awareness of the CSRs and improved their implementation ratio. Though a lot remains to be done to fully achieve the plans;
• stresses that the new flexibility in the revised EU economic governance framework and the medium to long-term perspective of national fiscal-structural plans could better promote necessary reforms and investments. This relies on three conditions: ensuring enough national fiscal space for adequate investment, including social investment, maximising the utilisation of all available EU funds, and strengthening the process to fully realise planned national ownership;
• advocates for stronger national ownership by a closer involvement of national parliaments, regional and local authorities, social partners and civil society, and for clearer provisions in EU and national procedures for implementing the new economic governance framework. It calls for a formal, permanent, and structured consultation process where national governments collaborate closely with authorities at all levels, alongside trade unions, employers, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders, throughout the entire cycle of the political process;
recommends that Member States provide their customs administrations and police forces with adequate human and technical resources, decent pay and working conditions and continued training;
highlights that combating the abuse of drugs and hard drugs necessitates a more differentiated, whole-of-society approach. Drug use should be tackled more by means of preventive and accompanying measures and less through repression;
advocates better cross-border law enforcement coordination between police and customs authorities, and better cooperation between law enforcement and judicial authorities as well as fiscal authorities in order to combat organised crime as effectively as possible.
while supporting the goal of transparent lobbying, strongly disagrees with the proposed focus. It urges a EU-wide approach that minimises burdens, safeguards civil society and strengthens existing measures for all lobbying activities.
calls for harmonising electoral processes across Member States to ensure inclusivity, accessibility for people with disabilities, better inclusion of young voters and resilience against potential manipulation;
emphasises the importance of bolstering citizen engagement through innovative formats. It advocates reforms to the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) and proposes establishing an EU-wide framework for effective participation.
emphasises the need for alignment with the OECD's Pillar Two minimum tax rules. This would ensure consistency and avoid confusion for businesses operating across borders;
raises concerns about potential complexity due to the existence of multiple tax systems running concurrently (BEFIT/TP, Pillar Two, and national rules). The EESC suggests clarifying how these systems interact to avoid additional burdens for businesses;
underscores careful assessment of BEFIT's impact on compliance costs, data minimization practices, and the compatibility of national innovation incentives with BEFIT;
recommends that the Commission issue clear and transparent guidance on how to apply the proposed conditionality package and also reiterates the importance of ensuring that the EU's focus on stability and geopolitical interests does not come at the expense of the rule of law and democracy;
asks the Commission to support candidate and potential candidate countries in evaluating both the advantages and drawbacks of early market integration, identifying those that are adversely affected and implementing customised mitigation measures;
reiterates the importance of regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations throughout the EU accession process and welcomes the focus in the Commission's proposal on developing the Common Regional Market (CRM).
recognises foresight as important in supporting decision-making processes and notes the efforts at EU level to assign foresight a strategic institutional role and to consider it in the EU decision-making. The EESC calls for foresight to remain high in the agenda of the new Commission.
calls for greater involvement for the EESC, as the voice of organised civil society and social partners, to enhance the EU's analysis and foresight capacities and help pinpoint trends and possible solutions in a transformative society
considers a revision of the Package Travel Directive (PTD) both timely and necessary, and in general welcomes the revised Directive, which aims to codify voucher schemes and provide clear information and legal guarantees to travellers, while giving more flexibility to travel businesses;
welcomes the removal of the overlap between packages and Linked Travel Arrangements (LTAs). This means that when different types of travel services are purchased at the same time for the same trip or holiday and from the same point of sale, this will be treated as a package;
urges the European Commission to approach the UK Government about the possibility of negotiating an ambitious reciprocal youth mobility partnership, that should set out conditions for research, study, training and youth exchange;
strongly supports the creation of a structured engagement between the EU, UK-level authorities and the devolved nations, with robust involvement of youth, including youth work and non-formal learning, to strengthen youth civil society dialogue and cooperation;
strongly recommends that structured inclusion of youth in existing engagement structures be established on both sides;
calls for the establishment of a centralised and accessible information hub for young entrepreneurs, who continue to be impacted by Brexit, experiencing uncertainty around the market access, notably by the stringent new rules governing the movement of goods and services across the Channel.
The EESC believes that river information services (RIS) in Europe not only now, but also in the future, should pursue three objectives: safety, sustainability, and enabling integration with different modes of transport.
The RIS should therefore be able to adapt to changing challenges and opportunities, while at the same time being compatible with the relevant systems in the various modes of transport and be user-friendly.
warns European authorities of the urgent need to assess the risks of addiction that social media and digital platforms create in vulnerable groups of our societies and to regulate the commercial use of Artificial Intelligence and algorithms.
suggests that the EU Institutions and all the Member States engage in a multi-factor strategy that reinforces all the previous measures to fight disinformation and prevents the use of digital platforms by organised fake identities as well as the in adoption of instruments that foster cooperation between national, regional and local news media in Europe.
