According to the EESC, the EU Disability Card should be voluntary and free of charge and its scope extended to provide access to services and benefits to people who are in another Member State on a temporary basis. The cards should be accompanied by the setting up of an EU, fully accessible website, with an easy-to-read version, available in all EU languages including sign languages, providing practical information for every country.
Download — EESRK nuomonė: European Disability Card and the European Parking Card for persons with disabilities
The revision of the Victims' Rights Directive aims to ensure that victims' rights are ensured, easier to access and improved for all victims' of crimes throughout the Union. The EESC welcomes this proposal and supports the following: improving the individual assessment of victims' needs, paying particular attention to more vulnerable or marginalised groups; improving guidelines and training so that such assessments are done correctly; enhancing the victim's right to information and having the right to review a decision during court proceedings; strengthening compensation schemes for victims.
Download — EESRK nuomonė: Revision of victims' rights directive
In this opinion, the EESC suggests several changes to the Commission's proposal, to make the text fully compliant with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Namely, the Committee suggest that if the adoption of a legal measure against a vulnerable person clearly violates human rights and international law, a Member State should be obliged not recognise such a measure.
Download — EESRK nuomonė: International protection of adults
Vulnerable groups pay a proportionally higher price of the consequences of climate change although they contribute less to it. In this opinion, the EESC calls for the development of a comprehensive EU political and social strategy to be able to respond proactively to climate emergency, stressing on the social aspects of the just transition. To do so, the EESC recommends, among other measures, the EU Social Climate Fund and the EU Climate Adjustment Fund be supplemented with additional instruments.
Download — EESRK nuomonė: The climate crisis and its effect on vulnerable groups
The EESC is a fervent defender of multilateralism and a rules-based world order. Its External Relations Section deals with many topics relevant to the broad spectrum covered by the United Nations and its specialised agencies, while many EESC opinions refer to core international principles and regularly cite the United Nations.
Download — EESRK nuomonė: Strengthening Multilateralism and core international principles for a rules-based order in a rapidly changing world – The importance of Civil Society contribution to the UN system
Climate diplomacy frames climate change as an external action policy topic and highlights the need to integrate climate objectives and address climate related risks at the highest diplomatic level and across all policy areas. Through this opinion we build on our previous work in this area and also explore practical aspects of the EU climate diplomacy.
The Covid 19-pandemic has drawn attention to the role of the pharmaceutical industry and to production, availability and affordability of medicines and medicinal products on the European market.
Dependency on critical ingredients, such as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), became obvious when China and India limited exports. According to current data, up to 80% of APIs used in Europe and about 40% of finished medicines sold in Europe come from China or India. The European Union's increasing dependence on API supplies has led to a partial loss of capability to manufacture active substances independently, which poses a potential threat to public health in the countries of the European Union.
Download — EESRK nuomonė: Securing Europe’s medicine supply: envisioning a Critical Medicines Act
One of the main conclusions of the 8th Cohesion Report is that although cohesion and convergence among regions in the European Union has improved, there are still remaining gaps especially in less developed regions related with their territorial characteristics. EU islands, mountain areas and sparsely populated areas still face many challenges on their growth and income and disparities exist.
In these regions, there are still a lot of gaps in terms of employment and investment, social exclusion is evident and gender disparities have not diminished.
Download — EESRK nuomonė: Main challenges faced by EU islands, and mountainous and sparsely populated areas
