The EESC welcomes the Commission's proposals to amend the Taking of Evidence Regulation and the Service of Documents Regulation and calls on the Commission to take into account its observations: without a genuine judicial area, the freedoms of the single market cannot be fully taken advantage of.
Download — Mišljenje EGSO-a: Taking of evidence and service of documents
In its opinion, the EESC welcomes the commitment to the renewed European Solidarity Corps (ESC) with an increased budget and target for participation. It also appreciates the merging with the EU Aid Volunteers. The Committee believes that in the future, the EU needs to develop two independent support programmes, one for youth and one for volunteering.
The EESC makes a series of concrete recommendations, such as: 1) the employment strand of the ECS needs to be subject to strict regulation and regular review; 2) there should be no age restriction on the ESC as it should be a support for volunteering; 3) the ESC should be restricted to the not for profit sector; 4)the main civil society platforms in the field (the European Youth Forum and the European Volunteering Centre) should be centrally involved in the regulation and oversight of the ESC.
Download — Mišljenje EGSO-a: European Solidarity Corps (2018)
The EESC welcomes the proposal for the ESF+ to improve merge funds and simplify procedures, but is critical of a financial cut in EU cohesion policy, and, as regards the ESF+, of the 6% decrease of the funding allocated to it. It calls for 30% of total resources for economic, social and territorial cohesion policies to be allocated to the ESF+ and for 30% of the ESF+ resources to be earmarked for social inclusion measures.
Download — Mišljenje EGSO-a: European Social Fund+
The EESC considers the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF) as pivotal factors to achieve sustainable development in the EU and therefore strongly regrets the cut of 12% in the ERDF and 46% in the CF.
The annual revision of the Eurostat SDG Report must be an opportunity for broader dialogue with civil society concerning which indicators be included and what the target for each of these should be. This own-initiative opinion examines how organised civil society could be better involved in a more qualitative follow-up of the annual revision of the Eurostat SDG report as part of SDG monitoring and follow-up programmes that have been established.
Download — Mišljenje EGSO-a: Indicators better suited to evaluate the SDGs – the civil society contribution (own-initiative opinion)
The EESC believes that the proposal is focused on the practical steps necessary to address real consequences for the vehicle manufacturing and distribution industry and consumers as a result of unavoidable legal changes in the certification of type-approval issues by UK authorities on the basis of EU laws. It should therefore act as a template for many other similar agreements.
Download — Mišljenje EGSO-a: EU type-approval legislation with regard to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union
