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 Consultative Committee of the European Economic Area (EEA CC) recently drew attention to gender gaps in the labour market and to challenges faced by the transport sector in the EEA. On 3 and 4 May two reports and resolutions concerning these issues were adopted by members of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and by social partners from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway at the Committee's 26th meeting, which took place in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Apprenticeship schemes should be shaped with the active involvement of the people directly concerned – apprentices themselves and their organisations. This is the main reservation voiced by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) regarding the proposed framework for high-quality and effective apprenticeships in Europe, which the EESC otherwise believes will help raise standards for such schemes across the EU.
The European Citizens' Panel will begin at the European Economic and Social Committee, acting as a springboard for launching public consultations on Europe. At the request of the French government the EESC, as the representative of civil society, will host this "premiere", which will take place on its premises on 5 and 6 May.
If the Commission's Action Plan to tackle the persistent pay gap between men and women yields no results by the end of 2019, the EESC may decide to call for stronger, more binding measures.
The Civil Society Forum under the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) held its sixth meeting in Seoul on 11 April, co-chaired by Mr Lee Ho-Geun and Mr Georgi Stoev. In their joint statement the co-chairs emphasized that the uncertain geopolitical environment posed new challenges to the EU-Korea relations. It called for promoting shared values and interests in the region and for making the partnership Korea and the EU more relevant to the request of the citizens.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) urges the Commission to be more rigorous in facilitating consumers' access to new, cleaner and affordable forms of mobility, and to introduce stronger financial support for public transport. The opinion on "Achieving low emission targets", which was adopted during last week's plenary session, discussed the Commission's proposal on how to effectively reduce gas emissions produced by road transport.