The COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak constitutes a grave emergency and represents a situation unprecedented since the end of the Second World War. Especially for the most deprived, the crisis risks disrupting the support provided by the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD).
Introduction of specific measures for addressing the COVID-19 crisis
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Financial aid for Member States and countries still negotiating the terms of their accession to the EU which are seriously affected by a major public health emergency
The EESC is concerned to note the euro area's economic downturn and the gradual end to a fall in unemployment, wedded to the persistent higher incidence of risk factors affecting economic performance. It is the European Green Deal that the EESC sees as the backbone of the future EU and euro-area economic configuration – the potential start of a fundamental change and a turning point. If managed successfully, it could move Europe up a gear economically and socially; if not, its failure could fatally jeopardise the integrity of the EU.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Euro area economic policy 2020
The EESC welcomes the approach taken by the annual growth strategy for 2020, based on the four key pillars that are the environment, productivity, stability and fairness and also welcomes the inclusion of the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. It also welcomes the fact that social rights are highlighted in the 2020 growth strategy and hopes that special attention will be given to the gender issue. Long term investment in education, training and skills development and to boost research and innovation, with increased funds earmarked for them, is absolutely crucial and decisive for the EU competitiveness. The greatest priority of all is to restore sustainable growth, above all in the weakest countries and regions. Finally, the EESC agrees on the need to strengthen the stability and resilience of the financial system and tighten the rules governing the financial markets.
The fleet segments with the highest dependency on Eastern Baltic cod encompass more than 300 vessels in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. The closure will have a strong negative impact in certain regions and coastal communities.
The EESC is currently drafting an opinion that aims to define what "the sustainable economy we need" should look like by exploring new economic models, investment decisions vis-à-vis technological advances as well as novel indicators for growth and competitiveness.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: The sustainable economy we need (own-initiative opinion)
An effective and principled competition policy to be one of the pillars of the European Union and an essential tool in achieving the internal market, pursuant to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the construction of a social market economy and the content of the Social Pillar. In the 2018 report on Competition Policy 2018, the European Commission develops an approach aimed at strengthening the Single Market, economic development and social policy objectives.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Report on Competition Policy 2018
Taxation policies are fundamental for the SDGs as they determine the economic environment in which investment, employment, and innovation take place while providing the government with revenues for financing public spending. Businesses are global drivers of productivity, inclusive economic growth, job creation, investment and innovation. Private sector expertise holds the keys to unlocking many of the challenges linked to sustainable development. Tax bases should be as broad as possible allowing tax rates to be as non-distortive as possible.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Taxation/private investment and the Sustainable Development Goals - cooperation with the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters (own-initiative opinion)
At the 2018 Euromed Summit, it was agreed that the next Information Report to be presented to the 2019 Summit of ESCs and Similar institutions will deal with the topic of the impact of digitalisation on SMEs in the Mediterranean area.
The integration of millions of young graduates into the job market each year constitutes a major challenge for the countries of the Southern Mediterranean. Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) play a decisive role in the fight against youth unemployment as they are important drivers of job creation and provide 80% of employment in the region.
Download — Information report: Digitalisation and SMEs in the Mediterranean region (information report)
This own-initiative opinion refers to what a comprehensive approach to industrial policy should include, in order to reposition European production of goods and services in the global context, on the basis of an eco-social open market model that responds to the tradition and the future of the EU.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: "Use-value" is back: new prospects and challenges for European products and services (own-initiative opinion)
A system of corporate liability for human rights abuses is currently being negotiated in the UN, within the UNHRC’s open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises concerning human rights (OEIGWG), established by the UN General Assembly on 26 June 2014. The mandate of the working group is to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Binding UN treaty on business and human rights (own-initiative opinion)
When it comes to development and EU-Africa relations, the EESC consistently emphasised the importance of sustainable development and cooperation based on the rule of law and the respect for human rights. Initiatives focused on trade, investment and business relations with Africa could be welcomed, but not to the detriment of traditional development policies focusing on reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). EU and Africa leaders agreed in 2015 at the Valletta summit on migration on setting up the EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), as the main instrument of EU external migration policy. The Fund finances the development of border protection capacities, but also long-term development policy projects so as to decrease the likelihood of further migration.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: External aid, investment and trade as instruments to reduce the reasons of economic migration, with a special focus on Africa (own-initiative opinion)
The opinion presents the EESC's proposal for the new European Disability strategy 2020-2030, at a crucial moment in the EU landscape. With a new European Commission, a new European Parliament and a new budget programming period, the timing is perfect to come up with a Disability Strategy that fully takes into account the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPRD), the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The opinion tackles various policy areas, drawing attention to the crosscutting character of disability rights.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Shaping the EU agenda for disability rights 2020-2030: a contribution from the European Economic and Social Committee (own-initiative opinion)
Against a background of rising poverty levels during the crisis, levels that remain high in many Member States, in particular among the unemployed, this own-initiative opinion would address the huge differences in levels of protection under national unemployment insurance systems within the EU.
Possible standards in this respect could be:
a minimum standard for the net replacement rate of unemployment benefits;
a minimum standard of coverage ratio of unemployed people receiving unemployment payments;
a minimum standard for the duration of unemployment benefit entitlement;
a right to (re)qualification and training
With the objective of promoting upward social convergence within the EU, the proposal for such standards is a concrete step towards effective implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights recently announced by the EU institutions in Gothenburg.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Common minimum standards in the field of unemployment insurance in EU Member States – a concrete step towards the effective implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (own-initiative opinion)
The INT section is currently preparing an opinion on the Commission's Communication "Building Trust in Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence" COM(2019)168. The Commission considers that in order to achieve ‘trustworthy AI’, three components are necessary: (1) it should comply with the law, (2) it should fulfil ethical principles and (3) it should be robust. Based on these three components and the European values, the guidelines identify seven key requirements that AI applications should respect to be considered trustworthy. The guidelines also include an assessment list to help check whether these requirements are fulfilled. The CCMI previous experience on the automotive sector is a solid asset to produce a supplementary opinion on this particular Automotive Sector.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Regulation, adopted in 2008, sets out its mission and tasks, as well as the framework for its operation. This regulation was amended in 2013 to bring it in line with the Horizon 2020 programme.
For the period 2021-2027, Horizon Europe will be the Union program that will finance the EIT. Since a number of provisions of the EIT Regulation refer directly to the current Horizon 2020 program, these provisions need to be amended to make them compatible with the forthcoming EU Framework Programmes for research and innovation. It is therefore proposed to make the new EIT Regulation temporally neutral, so that it would in principle not be necessary to modify it at the end of each MFF or that the changes would be only minimal. It is proposed to amend it by means of the legislative recasting technique to ensure greater legal clarity and readability.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) was created in 2008 by Regulation (EC) No 294/2008. Its mission is to respond to major societal challenges by improving the EU's innovation capabilities and performance. Every seven years, the Commission has to submit a proposal for a Strategic Innovation Programme (SIP) which sets out the priority areas and the long-term strategy for the EIT's action, as well as its financial needs.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Strategic Innovation Agenda of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) 2021-2027
The EESC welcomes the initiative of the European Commission (EC) to launch the assessment of the draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) submitted by the Member States, thereby following up on the new governance model launched by the Council and the Parliament in December 2018 and aimed at ensuring the transition to clean energy and climate protection through a multilevel interactive dialogue which fully involves civil society and public and private entities at local and regional level. The EU is the first major global economy to adopt, through specific National Energy and Climate Plans, a legally binding framework to deliver on its 2015 commitments under the COP21 Paris Agreement and the UN 2030 Agenda.
Download — Stanovisko EHSV: Integrated national energy and climate plans
