On Tuesday 24 January, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held an exchange of views with Guillaume Lafortune, Vice-President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN), on the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The debate revealed that the EU is failing to meet the objectives of the UN's 2030 Agenda. Yet, there is hope. The EU has the opportunity to take the lead, including through financial support. The EESC plays an important role in monitoring progress.
Transforming societies from fossil-fuel based to circular and sustainable will require far-reaching changes in all sectors, including education. In an own-initiative opinion, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) calls for transformative education that empowers young people to contribute to the green transition.
The EESC held a conference on the future of European strategic autonomy. The event was organised jointly by three Committee bodies; the Digital Transition and Single Market Observatory, the Labour Market Observatory and the Sustainable Development Observatory. Policy-makers, experts from organised civil society and academia, as well as youth representatives, gathered to discuss how to overcome current and future obstacles to a self-sufficient EU in times of great geopolitical tensions and multiple crises.
In two newly adopted opinions, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) gives updated views on the Commission's Annual Sustainable Growth Survey 2022, which outlines the upcoming economic and employment policy priorities for the EU, as well as on the Recommendations on euro area economic policy for 2022. The EESC calls for a balanced approach that does not jeopardise the EU's social and environmental goals.
The EESC is currently gathering inputs and views of diverse European actors working on the agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Civil society organisations who want to share their views on the EU’s internal and external implementation of the SDGs, are invited to submit their contribution via the online consultation.
Academia, local civil society organisations, representatives of regional and national authorities and members of the European Economic and Social Committee met at a conference in Dolni Vítkovice, a former industrial area for coal mining and steel production in Ostrava, on 11 October 2022. The conference on Reinventing the Moravian-Silesian Region in search of a socially just transition was organised by the EESC's Civil Society Organisations' Group as part of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU.
An interview with Tatjana BABRAUSKIENĖ, Head of International Relations at the Lithuanian Education and Science Trade Union. Currently a member of the NAT, SOC and REX sections, she's very active in education and its link to sustainable development.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) calls on the European Commission to publish an overdue report to consider extending the EU's sustainability taxonomy's scope to social objectives.
The Civil Society Organisations' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee in partnership with Irish Rural Link, the national network representing the interest of rural communities, are holding a joint conference on 'Just Transition' next Thursday, 9 June in Tullamore, Co. Offaly.
