The EESC issues between 160 and 190 opinions and information reports a year.
It also organises several annual initiatives and events with a focus on civil society and citizens’ participation such as the Civil Society Prize, the Civil Society Days, the Your Europe, Your Say youth plenary and the ECI Day.
Here you can find news and information about the EESC'swork, including its social media accounts, the EESC Info newsletter, photo galleries and videos.
The EESC brings together representatives from all areas of organised civil society, who give their independent advice on EU policies and legislation. The EESC's326 Members are organised into three groups: Employers, Workers and Various Interests.
The EESC has six sections, specialising in concrete topics of relevance to the citizens of the European Union, ranging from social to economic affairs, energy, environment, external relations or the internal market.
The conference on Women in the Labour Market organised by the EESC to mark International Women's Day, was held on 8 March under the shadow of the war. The participants paid tribute to the remarkable Ukrainian women for their strength, bravery and resilience. Attention was drawn to different aspects of gender equality such as the need to increase women's participation in the labour market, especially with regard to new digital and green jobs, to facilitate female entrepreneurship, to improve care services and work-life balance, and to tackle gender stereotypes and work-related harassment.
Social dialogue is an important tool for ensuring health and safety at work. However, in the face of changes brought to the world of work by the digital and green transition and the health crisis, social dialogue will have to be strengthened across Europe. It should be complemented by more robust rules on musculoskeletal disorders and psychosocial risks leading to major work-related illnesses such as heart conditions, stroke, cancer and depression
The pandemic has made it even more urgent to address the new challenges for health and safety at work. Enhanced social dialogue is required to guarantee better standards in teleworking and, more generally, in the digital environment
The EESC broadly supports the new EU Strategy against trafficking in human beings 2021-2025, but also calls attention to the need of the social dimension to be incorporated into the policy.
The speech delivered by von derLeyen in the 2021 State of the Union Address has to be critically received, mainly for what it lacks in terms of ambition and clarity, despite naming virtually all the key challenges Europe faces.
According to the EESC, the Commission's Action Plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights is both timely and necessary to thwart the threat of inequalities deepening across Europe in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) intends to play an active part in joint European efforts to translate the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) into action and to build a fairer and more prosperous Europe for everyone.
Climate protection and the pandemic have placed the State and Governments in a strong position. The European Commission has received a mandate from the governments of all EU member states to achieve climate neutrality for Europe by 2050 with the Green Deal, and to successfully lead the economy out of the Covid-19 crisis. A dynamic change of course is necessary. To protect workers during this transformation process, their rights have to be highlighted and enshrined as a special pillar at EU level.
It is time to translate the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) into action, and Europe needs a new social contract for the future. This is the key message of the webinar on the Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights and the Social Summit. The event was organised by the Workers' Group at the European Economic and Social Committee.