The European Economic and Social Committee welcomes the opportunity to provide an opinion on the Third report on State of the Energy Union by the European Commission, as it did before for the first and second reports. As expressed in previous opinions, the EESC strongly supports the idea of a European Energy Union and would like to stress that the Energy Union is not only relevant to sectoral policies such as energy, transport and climate but offers opportunities to make Europe more democratic, more cohesive, more competitive, and more just.
Download — EESC opinion: Third report on the State of the Energy Union
The EESC welcomes the Commission's proposal for a definitive VAT system and calls upon the Member States to cooperate closely for reaching the agreement regarding the new system. The Committee stresses that the quick fixes proposed by the Commission are important as intermediary steps for the functioning of the VAT system and encourages the Member States to adopt the quick fixes for all businesses.
This opinion is on the revision of the Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States, which provide common priorities and targets for employment policies of the Member States.
The European Commission has proposed to amend the 2015 Guidelines, to align the text with the principles of the European pillar of social rights.
They are adopted in the context of the European Employment Strategy, and form, together with the Guidelines for the Economic Policies of the Member States and of the EU, the Integrated Guidelines.
Illegal online content is a complex and cross-cutting issue that needs to be tackled from a range of perspectives, both in terms of assessing its impact and harmonising the way it is dealt with in the legal framework of the Member States.
Download — Opinjoni tal-KESE: Tackling Illegal Content Online – Towards an enhanced responsibility of online platforms (Communication)
The Committee recommends that future crises in the European Union should be managed by striving for a better balance between fiscal and social objectives and urges the Commission to design "supplementary economic and social recovery" programmes, to be applied at the same time as or at the end of an adjustment programme. The EESC recommends that in any future crises situation, the EU Institutions should be solely responsible for developing and implementing the adjustment programmes and stresses that social partners and representatives of civil society must be included in the programme's monitoring and assessment panel, on an equal footing with representatives of the EU, the ECB and other bodies.
Download — EESC opinion: Lessons learned for avoiding the severity of austerity policies in the EU
The EESC considers that ENISA's new permanent mandate as proposed by the Commission will significantly contribute to enhancing the resilience of European systems. However, the accompanying provisional budget and resources allocated to ENISA will not be sufficient for the agency to fulfil its mandate.
The EESC recommends to all Member States to establish a clear and equivalent counterpart to ENISA, as most of them have not done it yet.
The EESC also feels that, ENISA should prioritise actions to support e-government, should provide regular reports on the cyber-readiness of Member States focusing on sectors identified in Annex II to the NIS Directive and monitor the performance and decision-making of national certification supervisory authorities.
The EESC supports the proposal to create a cybersecurity competence network sustained by a Cybersecurity Research and Competence Centre (CRCC).
The Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU has requested the EESC to prepare an exploratory opinion on how to best promote SMEs in Europe with a special focus on a horizontal legislative SME approach and respect of the SBA's "think small first".
Download — Opinjoni tal-KESE: Promoting SMEs in Europe with a special focus on a horizontal legislative SME approach and respect of the SBA's "think small first" (Exploratory opinion requested by the Bulgarian Presidency)
This opinion will be the response to theEstonian Ministry of Rural Affairs' request to the EESC to explore the advantages of the Community-led Local Development (CLLD) approach for integrated local and rural development.
EP briefing on Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) and Community-Led Local Development (CLLD)
EP report on on new territorial development tools in cohesion policy 2014-2020: Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) and Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) (2015/2224(INI))
Download — Opinjoni tal-KESE: Advantages of the Community-led Local Development approach (CLLD) for integrated local and rural development (Exploratory opinion requested by the Estonian presidency)
