The EESC issues between 160 and 190 opinions and information reports a year.
It also organises several annual initiatives and events with a focus on civil society and citizens’ participation such as the Civil Society Prize, the Civil Society Days, the Your Europe, Your Say youth plenary and the ECI Day.
Here you can find news and information about the EESC'swork, including its social media accounts, the EESC Info newsletter, photo galleries and videos.
The EESC brings together representatives from all areas of organised civil society, who give their independent advice on EU policies and legislation. The EESC's326 Members are organised into three groups: Employers, Workers and Various Interests.
The EESC has six sections, specialising in concrete topics of relevance to the citizens of the European Union, ranging from social to economic affairs, energy, environment, external relations or the internal market.
Top proposals include full harmonisation of the new agenda with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and strengthened EU-level supervision of its application so as to ensure freedom from discrimination for people with disabilities and their acceptance as part of human diversity and humanity throughout the EU.
Now we have a golden opportunity to align the EU's next disability strategy with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
On 21 October, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a public hearing to gather input from grassroots organisations for its opinion on the EU's next ten-year strategy for disability rights and to draw the lessons from the agenda due to expire in 2020.
An EESC hearing points to the need to embrace a human rights-based approach to disability in news and entertainment programmes, to build a more inclusive society that sees the person, and not the disability
An EESC hearing has revealed that almost a million EU citizens may be deprived of their right to vote in the upcoming European elections as a result of their disability, and many more may face obstacles when casting their ballots.
The EESC hearing on the new MFF and cohesion policy seen from the disability perspective shows the EC proposal could still be improved
The European Commission's proposals for new rules governing the funds that underpin EU cohesion policy fail to list equality and accessibility for persons with disabilities among mandatory eligibility criteria for funding. This poses a risk that public money may be used to finance infrastructure or services that will only increase their discrimination, an EESC hearing revealed.
The Diversity Europe Group recently organised a structured brainstorming session aiming at encouraging its Members to think out of the box and to come up with ideas to feed into proposals for the Sibiu Summit on the Future of Europe. This session kick-started our Group's contribution to the EESC Roadmap 'From Cracow to Sibiu and beyond'.
EESC: de EU moet alle op gender en handicap gebaseerde discriminatie, waar ca. 40 miljoen vrouwen in Europa te maken mee hebben, bestrijden en uitbannen.
Het Europees Economisch en Sociaal Comité (EESC), een orgaan dat het Europees maatschappelijk middenveld vertegenwoordigt, heeft de EU-instellingen en lidstaten op 11 juli verzocht meer te ijveren voor de bescherming van gehandicapte vrouwen en meisjes, die in de EU nog steeds geconfronteerd worden met verschillende vormen van discriminatie op grond van geslacht en handicap, waardoor ze vaak maatschappelijk uitgesloten worden.
The EESC hosted a side event at the Conference of State Parties to CRPD in New York
The implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) cannot be successful without fully including persons with disabilities (PWDs) in society and in the economy, by means of decent work in an inclusive labour system.
Persons with disabilities may have the right to full social integration, but they are still not given the opportunity
On 20 June, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a hearing which showcased the positive impact of employing persons with disabilities, but also warned that prejudice and victimisation were still among the most important factors in their persistent exclusion from society and labour markets.
Access to information, more flexibility, transparency and control mechanisms are the main issues to be tackled when analysing the use of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), concluded the participants at the public hearing on 'Reviewing the 2014-2020 ESIF Regulations in favour of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations', held at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 13 December in Brussels.