In this own-initiative opinion, the EESC argues that deeper integration of the Single Market is essential to boost productivity, particularly in the services sector, which remains less integrated despite its growing economic importance.
The opinion deals with the 28th Regime legislative initiative whose purpose is to provide companies, especially innovative ones, with a single set of rules to invest more easily and operate in the Single Market.
In response to the successful European Citizens' Initiative, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has adopted an own-initiative opinion calling on the European Commission to introduce a legally binding EU-wide ban on conversion practices by including such practices as 'EU crimes' and recognising them as hate crimes. The EESC strongly condemns any practices aimed at changing, suppressing or erasing a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression, considering them incompatible with human dignity and in breach of the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. The EESC calls for a comprehensive and precisely defined ban covering both children and adults, all public and private actors, and the advertisement of such practices. It recommends that the prohibition explicitly includes sex characteristics, in order to protect intersex individuals from non-consensual and non-therapeutic interventions.
Download — Opinjoni mressqa mis-sezzjoni tal-KESE: Ban on conversion practices in the European Union
