Building a resilient Europe - Civil society and the National Recovery and Resilience Plans
Event type
Conference
Location
Brussels
Belgium
The Recovery and Resilience Facility is moving into its next phase, and the European Semester Group of the EESC is following the process. In this high-level conference we will discuss whether the national recovery and resilience plans will deliver as regards the aim of achieving fair, inclusive, competitive and sustainable growth and cohesion through the new growth strategy – the European Green Deal. Focus will be on the implementation of the national recovery and resilience plans, with particular attention on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the just transition towards a green, digital and sustainable European economy. The conclusions of this event will be forwarded to EU institutions and the "EU Recovery Summit" conference in Lisbon on 28 June 2021.
The EESC strongly believes in the importance of the next Semester cycle as a key instrument for implementing the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
However, it is still concerned about the lack of clarity in most Member States as regards their National Recovery and Resilience Plan governance systems and the distribution of responsibilities for their implementation.
The EESC would also draw attention to the need to measure progress in implementation, for which good monitoring indicators are needed; in this connection it welcomes the "Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard" initiative.
Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the need for a strong industrial policy to avoid dependence on other economic zones for many products and services.
The EESC wants to see real action in this respect by Member States, in terms of investment in education, infrastructure and industrial policy to raise employment and boost European industry.
The EESC believes that an economic transition from a model driven by growth to one predicated on sustainability is inevitable. Given the sheer complexity of and the huge challenges posed by this transition, the proposals for new indicators set out in this opinion are only one example of approaches that could be taken when it comes to tools for measuring the social, economic and environmental situation. A concise "Beyond GDP" scoreboard should be designed and incorporated into the European Green Deal scoreboard and the European economic governance process. Indicators that look beyond GDP must be able to do more than merely monitor and measure: they must inform policy development, improve communication and promote target setting.
Download format:
Download — Parecer do CESE: Beyond GDP measures for a successful recovery and a sustainable and resilient EU economy (Own-initiative opinion)
The EU's demographic situation requires a holistic approach that embraces social and economic policies, active labour market and cohesion policies, policies supporting families, measures for ageing workers etc. The best answer to the labour drain related to internal migration is the social and economic upward convergence of Member States. The COVID-19 crisis will strongly affect the policies on demographic challenges. We need urgent measures to protect citizens from the negative effects of this crisis.
Download format:
Download — Parecer do CESE: Demographic challenges in the EU in light of economic and development inequalities (Exploratory opinion at the request of the Croatian presidency)
This additional opinion complements and updates the proposals made in the yearly EESC AGS opinion. The EESC welcomes country-specific recommendations focus on investment and underlines that special attention must be paid to productive investments and investment in social infrastructure to prioritise sustainable growth. Next year's cycle should contain more CSRs to combat the existential threat of climate change. Investment would also be needed to enable the implementation of the social pillar to prevent an increase of social, economic, and environmental inequality. Taxation should favour this type of investment.
This publication provides an analysis of the main challenges faced by civil society organisations (CSOs), of the trends and drivers of change and of the future prospects for relations between policy-makers at the national and European level and CSOs. It was developed with the purpose of examining what might await European CSOs in the next 13 years until 2030, what are the main challenges and how these should be tackled.
This exploratory opinion responds to a request made by the Polish Presidency. One of the key messages is that the number of high quality jobs needs to be increased. If we succeed to use the untapped employment reserves in all age brackets, many other issues - for instance the long term funding of the pension systems - will be solved. If the real retirement age is to be raised then it is necessary to ensure that people can work longer. The opinion lists a package of measures to make working conditions favourable for older people.
Download — EESC opinion: Demographic trends and the labour market
The EESC adopted this opinion after in-depth work carried out during the four meetings of the study group. The opinion also reflects the national debates with civil society organisations carried out in all Member States between 2 September and 2 November 2016. These discussions were coordinated by three members of the EESC ('trios') from the country concerned, often in cooperation with the European Commission (15 debates) or the national economic and social council (7 debates). Participants came from a wide range of employers' and trade union organisations and other civil society organisations, as well as, to a lesser extent, from the academic world. A total of 116 EESC members and nearly 1,800 representatives of civil society organisations participated in the 28 debates. The conclusions/recommendations of the national debates have been grouped in the opinion, while the reports on the national debates will be published separately.
Relevant Eurofound publications, non-exhaustive chronological list
