is convinced that the electricity market should be reformed in such a way that it meets the objective of climate neutrality by 2050, combined with the objectives of security of supply and stable and affordable prices, as well as ensuring the right to energy for the protection of vulnerable groups.
stresses that young people, women, and indigenous and local communities (including migrants and people with disabilities) are the most vulnerable to water stress and have a large untapped potential for contributing to sustainable water management, for turning water into an instrument of peace and stability, and, thus, for contributing to blue diplomacy;
calls on the EU to pay due attention to these groups in its external relations and international cooperation and suggests a lighthouse partnership programme related to water stress for addressing how to empower them in an integrated manner;
notes that access to clean water, education, employment and participation in policymaking are key elements of empowerment;
reaffirms that blue and digital technologies are instrumental for improving water management and access to clean water and sanitation.
believes that EU agriculture, fisheries, and food policies must better address challenges such as pandemics, climate change, and conflicts. Improved crisis tools, fair pricing, and financial support are essential to ensuring food security, strategic autonomy, and fair incomes for producers.
points out the need to prioritize sustainability by restoring soil health, improving water use, rewarding eco-friendly practices, and addressing unfair trading like below-cost pricing. Supporting local and sustainable food chains is equally important.
recommends encouraging young people and women into the sector. Increased budgets, disaster insurance, fair trade practices, and creating a European food council will strengthen resilience and drive innovation.
believes that there has been a market failure in housing. This must be tackled by improving framework conditions like data, coordination, approval procedures and land use planning rules, establishing a fundamental right to housing, providing sufficient funding, implementing the ‘Housing First’ approach for homeless people and focusing more on the needs of young people and sustainability;
recommends that the Commissions assess the necessity, proportionality and consequences of suspending an exemption from the visa requirement;
special attention should be paid to the mobility needs of human rights defenders, especially if the human rights situation deteriorates in the third country concerned;
recommends that, if the suspension mechanism is activated, the EU should offer protection with careful assessments to certain categories of people, such as civil and human rights activists, vulnerable people exposed to exclusion or prosecution in third countries and to students /members of academia who wish to travel for professional reasons.
points out that access to public procurement is crucial for social economy entities and stresses the importance of establishing innovative criteria with real, non-market value;
calls on the Member States and the different levels of government to implement all of the measures and actions in the Recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions in order to help social economy entities access the public procurement market, using proportionate selection criteria, for example, or dividing contracts into lots;
calls for an extensive evaluation and revision of the European public procurement framework in the current legislative term.
calls on the Council to set a date for lifting land border controls between Bulgaria and Romania and the other Schengen Member States as early as 2024. The EESC also calls on all stakeholders to work collaboratively towards this goal, ensuring that the benefits of Schengen membership are extended equally to all EU citizens;
underlines that the Schengen Agreement is essential for the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the EU, and that the competitiveness of the EU has become a pressing political priority, as underscored by recent reports by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi;
considers that despite its significant achievements, the European single market remains a work in progress. Any limitations on the freedom of movement within it have an adverse effect on EU competitiveness and economic growth, hampering the full realisation of the social market economy as envisaged in the Treaties.
believes that more can be done to support SMEs by increasing the amount of damages and compensation granted in counterfeiting cases. It should be recommended that Member States (that do not currently do so) recognise punitive damages in their national legislation.
believes that it would be worth introducing Europe-wide counterfeiting insurance and that Member States should address the issue of how assets are valued.
calls for simpler, faster and more effective procedures for reporting and withdrawing advertisements for counterfeit products for sale online, and will monitor whether the obligations laid down in the Digital Services Act have a real impact on reducing the supply of counterfeit goods on the internet.
argues that, to be competitive in the area of general-purpose AI, Europe must invest in secure connectivity and resilient backbone infrastructure as well as in a resilient supply chain to ensure that the effects of generative AI can be harnessed for European actors and aligned with European values and needs;
recommends organising dialogues with stakeholders, including the social partners, about codes of practice in workplaces and workers' rights in the context of GPAI;
stresses that coordinated European and national investment in innovation and mobilisation of the tools of competition policy are needed in order to combat a market concentration dominated by large, often non-European, digital companies and to help develop EU value chains and value creation in AI.
adopting digitalisation and AI (artificial intelligence) could revolutionise the way public services are provided, offering innovative solutions for dealing more efficiently and more quickly with people’s needs;
AI can help make these services more accessible, in particular to the most vulnerable people in society;
the possibility to automate complex and repetitive processes could increase efficiency while reducing workload for individual workers.
