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.
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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 EESC welcomes the Youth Employment Package. It recommends, whenever possible, the age limit for access to the scheme be increased to 30, to cover young people who leave university later or those who are still in a transition phase from education to employment and are still at risk of losing contact with the labour market. There is also need to improve the conditions for offering traineeships and ensure their quality.
It its opinion, the EESC highlights a number of issues, two of which are: 1. During the various hearings that the EESC has held, not only for this opinion on the Outermost regions (ORs), but also for previous opinions, a strong feeling emerged that the derogations and special measures foreseen for ORs in article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union TFEU are being inadequately implemented. The EESC firmly believes that the terms of Article 349 (TFEU) need to be properly implemented in relation to certain European policies, such as competition, public procurement, fisheries and the environment, so as to take account of the ORs' specific geographical and climatic circumstances. The EESC urgently calls on the European Commission to draw up and publish an in-depth analysis of the application of the above-mentioned Article. 2. The EESC has also looked very carefully into the POSEI (Programme of Options Specifically Relating to Remoteness and Insularity).
The opinion "Job creation through apprenticeships and lifelong vocational training: the role of business in education in the EU" welcomes the active approach of employers and businesses to the development of skills and their adaptation to the needs of the labour market in order to rekindle growth, create jobs and improve the situation of young people on the labour market.
Download — EESC opinion: The role of business in relation to education in the EU