The upcoming Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU requested this exploratory opinion given that at present, consumers are experiencing dynamic changes due to the development of digital technologies and the green transition. In order to ensure a high level of consumer protection, it is necessary to respond adequately to changes in the consumer environment and to take action in response to current long-term challenges.
The EESC denounces the deterioration of human rights, the rule of law, and democracy, and calls for further improvements of the Commission's Annual Rule of Law Reports. Among others, it recommends that the Commission ensures meaningful involvement of civil society in both the preparation and follow-up stages of the report at the national level, and expands the Report’s section on CSOs. The Commission's assessment should be based on objective benchmarks and transparent dialogue with CSOs and the Commission needs to develop more precise and measurable country-specific recommendations with clear benchmarks, indicators and deadlines.
Following in the steps of the recommendations presented by Enrico Letta in his report on the Single Market, the opinion aims at proposing concrete measures on how to help reconcile the needs of social economy enterprises with the application of State Aid rules, taking into account existing good practices at national level.
Download — EESK atzinums: How to support social economy entities in line with State aid rules: thoughts following the suggestions in Enrico Letta’s report
The opinion aims to examine the economic development of candidate countries and the potential effects of enlargement on the EU Single Market. This opinion is part of a pilot project involving Enlargement Candidate Members in the preparatory work.
This subject of this own-initiative opinion is multidimensional, requiring from the opinion to address a wide spectrum of subtopics, while having a clear and logical thread.
