Europos ekonomikos ir socialinių reikalų komitetas
The European Commission's plan to set up a European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) to strengthen security checks on visa-free travellers to the Schengen area is inevitable at present due to the current security situation, the EESC said at its last plenary session. In its opinion on the EC proposal for a regulation establishing ETIAS, adopted in April, the EESC stressed that the information gathered through this system would enable a more...
Less than 10% of people with autism spectrum disorders are employed, an EESC hearing reveals
People with autism can be productive members of society if we provide them with proper support and understanding, participants in a debate prepared by the EESC’s Section on Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship (SOC) said on April 3. The EESC organized the event, which focused on the challenges of employing persons with autism, to mark the World Autism Awareness Day, observed on April 2 around the world.
3rd Migration Forum urges Member States to honour their common agreement on relocating migrants.
On 23 February the EESC adopted two opinions addressing the issues of education and training and vocational skills development in the EU. Initiatives intended to promote high quality education for all could be meaningless, the EESC warned, if the austerity measures still in place in many EU countries prevented these from making the highly needed investments. As for the Commission's New Skills Agenda, the EESC wishes to see more innovative solutions focusing on social and gender perspectives, non-formal and informal learning and entrepreneurship as a life skill.
"We are morally and legally obliged to welcome and integrate refugees into our societies, and especially those with disabilities, with solidarity and in a humane way", declared the EESC president at the opening of the public hearing on The situation of refugees and migrants with disabilities, alongside the president of the EESC Permanent Study Group on Disability Rights, Irena Petraitienė, and representatives from the Maltese government and the European Commission.
Politicians and civil society must act, says the EESC
The United Nations and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) presented the film Sold – a film about human trafficking by Jeffrey D. Brown - at Brussels' Centre for Fine Arts BOZAR on 10 January 2017. Opening the screening, together with Deborah Seward (Director of UNRIC), Madi Sharma, member of the EESC, said...
The EESC Opinion was adopted at the EESC plenary meeting with a majority of the votes (180 for, 84 against and 30 abstentions). A counter opinion on the same subject was put forward and not carried, receiving 94 for, 175 against and 23 abstentions.
The full texts will be ...
The European Union is not only a common market, it is an union of common values that shape the European identity. These values include the rights, freedoms and principles laid out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights: the "indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity; [the Union] is based on the principles of democracy and the rule of law. It places the individual at the heart of its activities, by establishing the citizenship of the Union ....
