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.
At the July plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), its president Christa Schweng and the newly elected president of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) Vasco Alves Cordeiro discussed renewed prospects for joint action and cooperation between the two committees.
At its July plenary, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) debated the Commission's draft directive to tackle gender-based violence and gender equality in presence of Cristina Fabre of the European Institute for Gender Equality. The Committee adopted two opinions with recommendations for making the legislation more effective in combatting such an issue of epidemic proportions and demanded for its inclusion in the list of EU crimes.
The high-level conference held in Riga by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) sounded the alarm on the affordable housing crisis and warned that it was high time for the EU to take action to enable Europeans to meet this basic need, now at even greater risk due to the spike in energy prices and the war in Ukraine.
At the June plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee, EESC president Christa Schweng and European Commission vice-president Dubravka Šuica agreed that, after a year of debate on the future of the EU, it was now vital to provide Europe's people with specific follow-up measures.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), just a week ahead of the EU Council Summit, adopted its second Resolution on Ukraine, strongly supporting the country's unconditional candidate status to the EU. The European civil society will be working hand in hand with Ukraine for Ukraine on the reconstruction of the country delivering a stronger, greener, more resilient and sustainable European partner.
With the Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles and the Data Act, the EU is taking two more steps towards the creation of a digital space that puts people at its centre, a debate at the EESC's June plenary highlighted.
Key industrial sectors in Europe made the case for a more data-driven and future-oriented response to overcome the disruption arising from Covid, Russian aggression, the energy and climate crises, and industrial and social transformation.
A resilient, sustainable and inclusive Europe is only possible if organised civil society is systematically involved in both national recovery plans and the Commission's new REPowerEU strategy. During its annual conference in June, the European Semester Group (ESG) renewed its call for a regulation or directive to ensure civil society participation, and proposed a permanent and common investment financing mechanism to enhance crisis preparedness and response capacity.
On European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) Day 2022, hosted by the EESC on 2 June, speakers and activists stressed that a more impactful ECI would also be more popular.