The Committee is delighted of the process to update and modernise the guidelines on public aid for businesses in disadvantaged areas and calls on the Commission to make EU policies more consistent with competition policy. The Committee requests that the new guidelines on state aid for the regions give Member States a flexible cross-sectoral instrument and asks for the adoption of more flexible parameters that are better tailored to a dramatically changing economic context.
Download — EESC opinion: The Internal Market and State aid for the regions
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation in the union
The EESC welcomes the draft proposal for a seventh Environment Action Programme (EAP). The decision of the Council and of the Parliament establishes an environment policy consensus among the EU's decision-making institutions on how serious the environmental situation remains, that there are significant deficiencies in the implementation of European environment law, that the efforts made to date to solve current and future problems have been inadequate, and on what action needs to be taken in environment policy in the period up to 2020.
Download — General Union Environment Action Programme to 2020
Up to 50% of food gets wasted in EU households, supermarkets, restaurants and along the food supply chain each year, while 79 million EU citizens live beneath the poverty line and 16 million depend on food aid from charitable institutions. The proposed own-initiative opinion should give impetus to draw up at the European level a coordinated strategy, combining EU-wide and national measures, to improve the efficiency of food supply and consumption chains and to tackle food wastage as a matter of urgency.
The EESC is convinced that "good" and thus "sustainable" business management must be built on the legal structures and practices of employee involvement based on information, consultation and, where applicable, co-determination. The "sustainable company" as a business management concept entails that the "voice" of employees is respected in business decisions and a "fair relationship" between employees, management and owners. A set of tools already exists for the obligatory involvement of employee representatives at national and European level. These provisions should be consolidated and applied generally in EU law, and in particular definitions of information, consultation and participation should be standardised. A new stage in this debate is marked by the European Parliament's resolution of 15 January 2013 on minimum standards for restructuring.
Download — EESC opinion: Employee influence and participation
The opinion "Job creation through apprenticeships and lifelong vocational training: the role of business in education in the EU" welcomes the active approach of employers and businesses to the development of skills and their adaptation to the needs of the labour market in order to rekindle growth, create jobs and improve the situation of young people on the labour market.
Download — EESC opinion: The role of business in relation to education in the EU
It its opinion, the EESC highlights a number of issues, two of which are: 1. During the various hearings that the EESC has held, not only for this opinion on the Outermost regions (ORs), but also for previous opinions, a strong feeling emerged that the derogations and special measures foreseen for ORs in article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union TFEU are being inadequately implemented. The EESC firmly believes that the terms of Article 349 (TFEU) need to be properly implemented in relation to certain European policies, such as competition, public procurement, fisheries and the environment, so as to take account of the ORs' specific geographical and climatic circumstances. The EESC urgently calls on the European Commission to draw up and publish an in-depth analysis of the application of the above-mentioned Article. 2. The EESC has also looked very carefully into the POSEI (Programme of Options Specifically Relating to Remoteness and Insularity).
In this opinion, the EESC will aim to adopt a stance on the role of social protection in development policy. This is likely to be one of the main topics in the debate about the new goals of development policy which are to replace the Millennium Development Goals after 2015.
Download — Social protection in European Union development cooperation
The opinion will look at the issues related to economic, social, environmental and human dimensions of the growing use of the Arctic wealth, potential role of the civil society in voicing the interests of the groups involved as well as in supporting the position of the EU in the dialogue with international partners concerned.
Download — EU Arctic Policy to address globally emerging interests in the region – a view of civil society
The opinion aims to present a detailed analysis of the current state of commercial relations between food suppliers and the large retail sector, it also intends to put forward arguments demonstrating that the traditional concept of contractual freedom sometimes invoked by those opposing the regulation of commercial relations is, in practice, largely obsolete.
The EESC welcomes the proposal for a directive for improving the gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on the stock exchange with a minimum objective of 40% by 2020. The EESC and the Commission recognise the need to respect the freedom to conduct business. This directive is a minimum standard which seeks to improve the conditions for business prosperity and allows Member States to progress beyond the measures recommended.
Download — EESC opinion: Gender balance on company boards
The EESC wishes to highlight changes in mindsets in companies that are paving the way to new or adjusted business models. Sustainability is a strategic issue in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and in similar national initiatives as well as in the preparation of sectoral low-carbon roadmaps at EU level. Changes in the focus and structure of companies and in international value chains are bringing new business models into being.
