The EU’s ambitious climate targets are driving up costs for industries, but they also encourage innovation and create value, necessitating a careful balance between development and maintaining competitiveness. The EESC opinion aims to assess how these challenges will impact European industry and propose solutions to ensure competitiveness amid rising energy costs and the green transition.
Cohesion policy in its current form has had positive impact on the socio-economic development of the EU, individual countries and regions. However, the Polish presidency points out that there is a need to improve the effectiveness of the mechanisms supporting the transformational objectives of cohesion policy. In the discussion of its future, there are ideas aimed at reforming the implementation mechanisms with the approach used in the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) implemented since 2021 as a response to the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and to support the transformation processes of economies.
The opinion expresses the views of the EU organized civil society on the priorities to the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW69). It calls for an increased pace of progress on gender equality, be more vocal about the shrinking space for civil society and block any backlash against women’s rights. Some challenges to be addressed include attracting more women to politics, addressing violence against women, ensuring a gender-equal just transition, closing the gender digital gap and the unpaid care responsibilities and ensuring women stay in the labour market.
This own-initiative opinion stresses that any kind of violence against women is a violation of women’s human rights. The EESC believes Directive 2024/1385/EU on combating violence against women and domestic violence should address all forms of violence against women and calls for sexual violence and rape to be included as a form of violence and criminalised based on the absence of consent. Highlights that any kind of violence against women is a significant public and clinical health concern, while stressing the multiple and intersectional discrimination suffered by women with disabilities.
With the launch of the 2025 European Semester cycle the European commission has published the "2025 European Semester - Autumn package" in December 2024. The 2025 European Semester - Autumn Package outlines economic and social policy priorities for the EU to ensure sustainable prosperity and competitiveness. It highlights the EU’s recent resilience while emphasizing the need to address structural barriers to growth. The EU is committed to ensure sustainable prosperity and competitiveness while strengthening its social market economy and safeguarding its sovereignty, economic security and global influence. The EESC's opinion on the 2025 European Semester - Autumn package is due to be adopted at the EESC plenary session of February 2025.
The recommendations of this EESC own-initiative opinion focus on ensuring a more competitive and economically, environmentally and socially sustainable European maritime space to increase the global competitiveness of the EU shipping sector. This can be achieved through broader investment policies and legislative initiatives. The social partners and civil society must be actively involved in these efforts.
