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.
The aim of the conference is to develop a new vision to support entrepreneurship and competitiveness of SMEs and to contribute towards a more SME-friendly business climate in the European Union. Discussions will aim towards defining a mature, proactive and perennial policy that will strengthen Europe in the face of today's challenges, with an accent on internationalisation and digitalisation as key tools for dealing with all these challenges.
The objective is to outline a new, reformed and bolder "European Small Business Act", by moving to the next level: from "Think Small First" to "Act Small First". The conference will be divided into four discussion panels, covering the following subjects: Finance Entrepreneurship, Young and Women Entrepreneurs, Digital Europe and European Cohesion and Regional Development.
The public hearing on "Towards a more resilient and sustainable European economy with a vision for completing EMU" to be held on Friday, 12 April 2019, starting at 11.30 a.m., will discuss from a wider civil society perspective the future of the European economy and the political initiatives and decisions that need to be taken during the upcoming legislative term and beyond. Taking into account the conclusions of the debate, the EESC will draw up two own-initiative opinions, entitled "Towards a more resilient and sustainable European economy" and "A new vision for completing the Economic and Monetary Union", to be forwarded to the new European Parliament and European Commission.
The European Economic and Social Committee is organizing a hearing as part of its follow-up work on its opinion on ''A European retail sector fit for the 21st century'', which was adopted in December 2018.
The event will take place on 26 September 2019 in Brussels. It is part of a series of follow-up hearings to be held in several EU Member States.
The main objective of the hearing will be to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency of EU retail policies and to collect valuable input and feedback from Belgian stakeholders on the issue in order to find ways to improve these policies. Particular emphasis will be placed on the recommendations presented in the EESC opinion with a view to their implementation at national level.
The European Economic and Social Committee organized with the distrettourbano del commercio of Como a hearing as part of its follow-up work on its opinion on ''A European retail sector fit for the 21st century'', which was adopted in December 2018. The event took place on March 28 2019 in Como, Italy. It is part of a series of follow-up hearings to be held in several EU Member States.
The main objective of the hearing was to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency of EU retail policies and to collect valuable input and feedback from Italian stakeholders on the issue in order to find ways to improve these policies. Particular emphasis was placed on the recommendations presented in the EESC opinion with a view to their implementation at national level.
Opportunities for SMEs emerging from digital revolution – this will be the focus of the Extraordinary Meeting of the Bureau of the Employers' Group that will take place in Vienna on 24 and 25 October 2018. Apart from bringing concrete examples of SMEs benefitting from digitalisation, the participants will elaborate on potential of eIDAS (electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services) for SMEs and show the perspective of non-EU country on digital revolution. The impact of digitalization on education and dual system will also be analysed.
As a follow-up to the Consumer Dialogues, "Les Assises des Consommateurs" (the 2018 Consumer Summit) showcased the results of this outreach and offered the opportunity for debate and conclusions.
The main objective of the hearing was to debate the effectiveness and efficiency of EU policies for SMEs and gather valuable input and feedback from Lithuanian stakeholders on the matter with a view to finding ways in which they can be improved. Particular emphasis was put on the recommendations that have been outlined in the EESC opinion with the aim of implementing them at national level.
The hearing is part of the EESC follow-up work related to its opinion on Improving the effectiveness of EU policies for SMEs, adopted in July 2017.
The main objective of the hearing will be to debate the effectiveness and efficiency of the EU policies for SMEs and gather valuable input and feedback from Greek stakeholders on the matter with a view to finding ways in which they can be improved. Particular emphasis will be put on the recommendations that have been outlined in the EESC opinion with the aim of implementing them at national level. Issues such as access to finance, improving access to markets and internationalisation, promoting entrepreneurship, reducing the administrative burden, simplification, supporting SMEs competitiveness and innovation will be at the forefront. The stakeholders are also invited to express their views on the current definition of SMEs and on its potential need for revision.
The main objective of the hearing is to debate the effectiveness and efficiency of EU policies for SMEs and gather valuable input and feedback from Italian stakeholders on the matter with a view to finding ways in which they can be improved. Particular emphasis will be put on the recommendations that have been outlined in the EESC opinion with the aim of implementing them at national level.
The main objective of the hearing was to debate the effectiveness and efficiency of EU policies for SMEs and gather valuable input and feedback from Swedish stakeholders on the matter with a view to finding ways in which they can be improved. Particular emphasis was put on the recommendations that have been outlined in the EESC opinion with the aim of implementing them at national level.
Issues such as access to finance, improving access to markets and internationalisation, promoting entrepreneurship, reducing the administrative burden, simplification, supporting SMEs' competitiveness and innovation were at the forefront. The stakeholders were also invited to express their views on the current definition of SMEs and on its potential need for revision.