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 9th meeting of the EU-DAG under CETA is the first meeting to take place under the new Mandate 2020 -2022. Members proceeded to appoint the new President and Vice-Presidents. DG Trade made a presentation on EU-Canada trade relationship, the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) Chapter review, the impact of Covid on current EU-Canada Trade and the upcoming Civil society Forum and sub-committee on TSD. Members of the EU DAG exchanged views on a new work programme and priorities and discussed preparations for the upcoming Joint meeting of the EU-Canada DAGs (DAG-to-DAG) on 7 December 2020.
NAT/SDO online conference organized jointly with the German Council Presidency
Conference
14:00 - 16:45
Brussels
Belgium
The conference will explore the role of European Civil Society in using digitalization in a way that it enables and drives sustainability to support the European Green Deal and the EU sustainable recovery.
The Workers' Group is organising an extraordinary meeting on the current challenges for Europe and the priorities of the Workers' Group in this framework.
The EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) envisages that DAG members of each Party will meet together at a Civil Society Forum to conduct a dialogue encompassing sustainable development aspects of trade relations between the Parties. The Civil Society Forum meets once a year unless otherwise agreed by the Parties, with the venue alternating between Brussels and Singapore.
A DAG-to-DAG is a joint civil society body between the partner countries of a Free Trade Agreement, bringing together the separate DAGs of each party. This is the 1st joint meeting of the EU and Singapore DAGs under the EU-Singapore FTA.
Implementation of the TSD Chapter within the EU-Singapore FTA and the contribution by the economic, social and environmental civil society actors to its monitoring
Brussels
In this first workshop that gathers together the members of the EU DAG and Singapore DAG the focus will be on the consultation of civil society in the context of policy and legislation development and implementation, including in the context of trade policy, trade agreements and Trade and Sustainable Development chapters.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) played a central role in bringing the consensual views of organised civil society in the EU to the attention of policy-makers and contributing to the rapidly evolving economic policy response at European level.
In this regard, we believe that now is the time for the EU institutions to make decisive steps in approving swiftly the new Facility and putting in place the necessary implementation mechanisms at European and national level, so that the hardest hit Member States, citizens and businesses can benefit from the relevant EU funding when they need it most.
Against this background, and on the occasion of the first meeting of the EESC's Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion (ECO) in our new term-of-office (2020-2025), we are organising a thematic debate on this issue between European policy-makers and civil society representatives.
The debate will take place on Thursday, 19 November 2020 from 14.30 to 16.40 as an online event, webstreamed live on the EESC website.
During the meeting on 18 November 2020 the EU DAG members will discuss the work programme for the first mandate, agree on the working methods as well as elect the chair and two vice-chairs.
The 6th meeting of the EU-Central America joint meeting of civil society Advisory Groups and Civil Society Dialogue Forum took place on 12 and 13 November 2020 virtually.
On Friday 13 November 2020,the Advisory Groups of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, together with the European Union Advisory Group, met to debate and address the concerns of all sectors represented in them, also taking into account the challenges ahead in the awake of the COVID-19 crisis on the two regions, and make recommendations to the Trade and Sustainable Development Board.