Comité Económico e Social Europeu
"Achieving sustainable growth in a competitive world is challenging. The challenge is even greater for the European Union, as the Old Continent faces a severe competitiveness deficit. Without entering into a health review, that could be delivered at a further stage, of each of the 28 Member States, the ambition of this study is to draw-up a comprehensive picture of EU economic growth.
The business sector in Europe believes it is time to redefine EU priorities, by putting competitiveness first, implementing the better regulation agenda and offering better support for innovation. To improve the environment for investments in innovation and to address issues underpinning it, an appropriate framework must be put in place.
Europe is lagging behind other global players in terms of research and development (R&D). The business sector in Europe believes that if the EU is to become more competitive globally, more focus needs to be put on innovation. Greater clarity is needed in setting priorities. The most serious problem is that despite funds being allocated to basic research, the results of the research process do not make it to the market. Research and new technologies exist, but there are obstacles preventing them from being brought to customers.
The social dialogue and industrial relations in Bulgaria are developing in an unfavorable environment. A trend towards decentralisation of collective bargaining and abandoning the practice of extending the branch collective agreements is observed. All these developments are gradually diminishing the collective bargaining coverage.
The study proposes draft guidelines to serve as a framework for participatory dialogues to facilitate planned Commission initiatives to implement the 2011 transport policy White Paper or infrastructure projects on the TEN T Core Network Corridors.
In 2009, Romania ignored the signs of the financial crisis which manifested visibly in EU and North America, and entered into this crisis unprepared and later than other countries. Therefore, the effects of the crisis were not mitigated by preventive measures, and nor after entering the crisis, were real corrective measures taken, except measures to reduce public spending. But these measures were not homogeneous in all public spending areas.
The European Union is at its core a model of transnational governance based, inter alia, on democracy and the rule of law. There are two key findings from our survey: On the one hand, that civil dialogue is based on the primary or constitutional law of this Union and addresses the specific challenges of transnational democracy. On the other, that implementation remains a challenge.
“Building the Europe We Want” (June 2015) is the Report of a Study by Stakeholder Forum for the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and its Sustainable Development Observatory(SDO) on how best to engage different stakeholders in the implementation, monitoring and review of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the EU level.
The study analyses the collaborative consumption and planned obsolescence in the context of circular economy, shared and the common good. The analysis is done from a holistic view of the interactions and interdependencies in the various economic, environmental and social spheres.
Representatives of the European organised civil society have put forward a pack of recommendations for the European Commission's review when crafting its annual Work Programme for 2016. In the view of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the main priorities for the EU in 2016 should be to deepen economic integration and convergence, provide a strategic framework for the Energy Union and launch a democratic renewal of the European project.
