With this opinion the EESC wishes to highlight the scale of Dieselgate and regrets that the Commission was not able to anticipate these events by means of effective measures from the outset. The EESC further considers that the solution put forward in this proposal should not be limited to dealing with an issue of form, without genuinely serving the applicants' interests. Lastly the EESC also fears that, by empowering the Commission to issue delegated acts under the terms it sets out, the proposal would undermine not only the effectiveness of the legislation but also the intentions of the legislator when establishing these delegated act.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Motor vehicles - emissions from light passenger and commercial vehicles - repair and maintenance information (amendment)
The EESC would like a vigorous SME-friendly initiative (Act Small First) to be implemented with a view to achieving this objective, and calls for the Think small first principle and the SME test to be evaluated. The goal here will be to make these tools more effective and to design SME-compatible legislation so that SMEs can develop within the single market on the basis of complete legal certainty...
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Better Regulation stocktaking (Communication)
In this opinion, the EESC notes that the measures taken by the EU Member States to address the challenge of an ageing workforce remain isolated and their impact has not been gauged. Therefore, the EESC highlights the need for comprehensive strategies, to deal with the demographic and employment challenges in a holistically manner.
The Committee also issues concrete recommendations to encourage longer active working lives.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: The changing world of work and the longevity/ageing population - The preconditions for ageing workers to stay active in the new world of work (Exploratory opinion at the request of the Finnish Presidency)
This opinion calls on the EU to develop a strategy to enhance continuous, learner-centred learning, with digitalisation and the deployment of trustworthy AI at its heart, and stresses the essential role of both public education and non-formal education to enhance inclusiveness and active citizenship. Such a strategy requires an increased allocation of EU funds and more cooperation between policymakers, education providers, social partners and other civil society organisations.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Digitalisation, Al and Equity - How to strenghten the EU in the global race of future skills and education, while ensuring social inclusion (Exploratory opinion at the request of the Finnish Presidency)
The EESC notes that the Global Compact is a non-binding instrument that does not create new obligations for EU Member States and its content is fully in line with the principles and values of the European Union, most notably Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, which includes – as its main values – respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. The EESC therefore regrets the fact that the Compact has not been approved by all Member States and recommends that the EU clarify and build on the Compact's objectives using appropriate mechanisms.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Implementation of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration based on EU values (own-initiative opinion)
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: The European Pillar of Social Rights – evaluation of the initial implementation and recommendations for the future (own-initiative opinion)
The EESC takes note of the Fourth Report on the State of the Energy Union (SEU), supports the objectives of the Energy Union and welcomes the emphasis on the engagement and mobilisation of EU society to take full ownership of the Energy Union.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Report on the State of the Energy Union
The European Commission’s first progress report on the implementation of the Strategic Action Plan on Batteries shows that a variety of actions have been launched to develop a significant battery industry in the EU. Although it is far too early to draw definitive conclusions, the EESC supports the initiatives that the Commission has taken and has announced it will take to work with Member States and European industry to break Europe's dependence on non-EU – particularly Asian – countries. There is much to be done in the coming years to achieve the necessary level of technological expertise in the EU, to secure the supply of raw materials from third countries and EU sources and to ensure that batteries can be recycled safely and cleanly. Investing in staff is the joint responsibility for the government and the business community.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Strategic Action Plan on Batteries (report)
The future of Europe and of the EU will be shaped and developed by our young people – by the students sitting in classrooms today. The foundations of their perceptions of and attitudes towards developments in Europe and the EU, and of their according them value or rejecting them, are already being laid in class and during discussions at school. The aim of a "Teaching Europe" initiative would be to put more emphasis on Europe and the EU in teaching in schools, and to highlight the EU's main achievements and its future challenges. The way the history of the EU Member States is taught should also be taken into consideration. As an idea, easy-to-use teaching materials could be developed, which would explain, among other issues, the role played by the EESC, civil society and the social partners.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Teaching Europe – developing a toolkit for schools (own-initiative opinion)
The EESC calls for synergy between European PES Network strategy going beyond 2020 and the principles of the EPSR. An innovative role for PES in implementing national employment and labour market policies and in guaranteeing more effective services for companies has to be properly supported at national level with sufficient capacity, skilled staff, IT and technical equipment and financial support. Greater efforts should be made to monitor, evaluate and benchmark PES services to assess the effectiveness of these services in assisting jobseekers entering the labour market.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: The new role of public employment services (PES) in the context of the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (own-initiative opinion)
This own-initiative opinion will focus on the interface and inter-linkages between the European semester and Cohesion policy under the new Multiannual Financial Framework with a view to developing policy proposals to improve sustainable growth performance. With the Europe 2020 Strategy coming to an end, these proposals can contribute to the preparation of a new European strategy post-2020.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: The European Semester and Cohesion policy - Towards a new European strategy post-2020 (own-initiative opinion)
In response to the Commission's request for civil society's contribution to the evaluation of the directive, the EESC has consulted CSOs in the Member States. The Committee's conclusions address the directive's transposition, scope, effectiveness and potential revision.
Download — Information report: Evaluation of the Consumer Credit Directive
The EESC calls for a strategic shift at all levels to unequivocally promote new models of circularity, not only by stepping up the alignment of all actors, but also by placing consumers at the centre of public policy.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: The role of consumers in the Circular Economy (own-initiative opinion)
This opinion aims to identify the barriers, key success factors and solutions for creating a truly innovative business climate to capture the solutions provided by new economic models.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Fostering an entrepreneurship and innovation friendly single market – promoting new business models to meet societal challenges and transitions (own-initiative opinion)
European industrial, energy and climate policy is hampered by contradictory requirements on the price for Greenhouse effect Gas (GHG) emissions: on the one hand, high prices would be necessary to incentivise investment and changes in consumption patterns; on the other, the preservation of the external competitiveness of EU energy-intensive industries, as well as the prevention of “carbon leakage”, would require low prices.
The proposed own-initiative report investigates the technical and legal feasibility of Border Adjustment Measures for the internal price of GHG emissions: importers pay the price, exporters get it refunded, as it already is the case for VAT. The refund of the GHG emission price to exporters could be based on a VAT-like accounting system. The GHG emission price paid by importers could be based on the basic metals and materials content of the product. This system would be in line with WTO rules, and rely upon fully proven methodologies.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: The sectoral industrial perspective of reconciling climate and energy policies (own-initiative opinion)
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Transport, energy and services of general interest as drivers of sustainable European growth through the digital revolution (own-initiative opinion)
The European Union is greater than the sum of its Member States operating within the single market.
Since the Bratislava Declaration and Roadmap, and even more since the Rome Declaration, EU firms' and citizens' support for the EU has improved, thereby helping the EU leaders to achieve their essential objective of regaining business and citizens' trust: new sound ideas to foster incrementalinnoation in EU manufaturing must be elaborated and tested before the special summit on the Future of Europe debate, due to take place in the Romanian city of Sibiu on 9 May 2019.
Download — Information report: Fostering incremental innovation in high manufacturing areas (information report)
Although considerable progress has already been made towards completing EMU, there is still a need to significantly reinforce all four of its pillars, taking care to maintain the balance between them, as neglecting one or more of these pillars could result in dangerous disparities. Resilience to crises is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for completing EMU: it also requires a positive vision, as set out in Article 3 of the EU Treaty. The EESC generally calls on the European institutions and national governments to take much more ambitious action in the context of EMU reform in order to achieve a more integrated, more democratic and socially better developed Union.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: A new vision for completing the Economic and Monetary Union (own initiative opinion)
The absence of economic and social convergence among Member States and regions is a threat to the political sustainability of the European project and all the benefits it has brought to European citizens. Developing economic and labour market resilience with economic, social, environmental and institutional sustainability should be the principle guiding policies. This will foster upwards convergence and fairness in the transition towards a climate-neutral economy while managing the challenges posed by digitalisation and demographic change.
Civil Society Days 2019 - Workshop 6 Economy and democracy labour market resilient and sustainable pathway
In the opinion, the Committee states that taxation policy in general and combating tax fraud in particular must remain a priority for the next European Commission. In this line, the EESC endorses a debate on gradually shifting to QMV and the ordinary legislative procedure in tax matters, while recognising that all Member States must at all times have sufficient possibilities to participate in the decision-making process. Moreover, the Committee believes that any new rule must be fit-for-purpose and that certain conditions need to be met to successfully implement QMV: a sufficiently strong EU budget; better coordinated economic policy; and a substantial analytical work assessing to what extent current tax measures have been insufficient.
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Taxation – qualified majority voting
The EESC believes that the practical applications of blockchain technologies can significantly improve the performance of social economy organisations, benefiting them, their members and, above all, their end users. Besides, the EESC believes that real involvement of social economy and civil society organisations is imperative to ensure that the huge opportunities offered by the new technologies are geared towards delivering benefits, access, transparency and participation for all, and not just for a new "digital economy elite".
Download — Tuairim ó CESE: Blockchain and distributed ledger technology as an ideal infrastructure for Social Economy (Own-initiative opinion)
