Boosting investment in strategically important industries, innovation and integrated capital markets, while ensuring fair mobility, social and environmental standards, as well as a competitive services sector.
Creating fiscal space through the newly revised EU fiscal rules and an EU investment capacity to finance growth-enhancing projects, while building buffers in times of recovery.
Strengthening the EU’s global economic position by pursuing bilateral trade agreements, reforming the WTO, and adopting a coordinated strategy to close gaps in productivity, research, investment and competitiveness.
advocates implementing the EU customs reform as quickly as possible, in particular the part concerning e-commerce, and urges the EU Member States to immediately give the Commission a mandate to develop the customs data hub;
calls for the abolishment of the EUR 150 customs duty exemption and for the implementation of the ‘deemed importer’ model across the EU, shifting responsibility from consumers to platforms; and
insists that all third-country platforms appoint an EU-based responsible economic operator with full legal liability, as required by the Digital Services Act, and be recognised as central actors in the supply chain.
Expanding the scope of investments to include satellite intelligence, interoperability, dual-use projects and longer-term programming, with balanced distribution across Member States and regions.
Ensuring democratic and social safeguards by involving national monitoring committees, setting ceilings for fund transfers, attaching social conditionalities (skills, reskilling, worker transition), and requiring impact assessments for large projects.
Building a coordinated EU defence strategy through a common register for defence and dual-use investments, closer complementarity with other EU funds (e.g. ESF, SAFE), and creating a dedicated EU body to coordinate procurement, innovation and market consolidation.
calls for European public goods (EPGs) to be at the heart of the post-2027 EU budget, with stronger investment in areas essential to the Union’s functioning and resilience. These include the single market, economic and monetary union, cohesion, strategic autonomy (health, food, energy), defence, research and the rule of law, alongside green and digital transitions and social priorities.
warns that failing to act would mean a “cost of non-Europe”, with up to EUR 2.8 trillion in lost GDP gains by 2032. It calls for an ambitious, flexible Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and stresses that financing EPGs requires new and adequate EU own resources.
finds that special attention must be given to ‘functional EPGs’ – those linked to Article 3 TEU – that can ensure the normal functioning of the EU: the completion of the single market; the completion of the economic and monetary union; economic, social and territorial cohesion; EU open strategic autonomy (e.g. the joint EU health policy, food security, the EU energy union); defence and security; EU research and development; and the rule of law.
Safeguarding the integrity of the sustainable finance framework, ensuring that revisions to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and Omnibus packages do not undermine transparency, delay investment or increase risks such as carbon lock-in.
Expanding the framework to cover the full environmental, social and governance (ESG) spectrum, with stronger social safeguards, a social taxonomy, recognition of transition finance with mandatory transition plans, and clear definitions aligned with international standards.
Mobilising savings and investments through the Savings and Investment Union and Banking Union, while preserving fiscal space for green and social investment, ensuring that sustainability remains central to EU competitiveness and global leadership.
calls on the Commission to develop an action plan to enforce the fundamental right to housing, emphasising that this right must be formally enshrined in EU primary law;
urges to reform state aid rules to allow broader access to social housing. The current definition of service of general economic interest (SGEI) excludes key groups and limits Member States’ ability to respond to rising demand;
stresses that the Commission has so far failed to put citizens at the heart of the Energy Union. It thus welcomes the Citizens’ Energy Package (CEP) as a way to engage people and communities, but underlines that the CEP must guarantee citizens’ full involvement in building a fair, sustainable, and secure energy system. It also calls for stronger action against energy poverty, with a clear definition and local, data-driven identification of affected households.
welcomes the proposal but also realises that the EU needs to prioritise the phase-out of Russian gas and oil in 2026, ensuring full and definitive completion by the end of 2027 at the latest, and recognises the urgent need to cease funding Russia’s war effort and place the EU’s security above the perceived short-term financial gains of a handful of Member States. The new article 7 that the EESC proposes would put oil imports on an equal footing with gas imports.
welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive to extend the exemption period during which zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles (ZEVs) benefit from significantly reduced or exempted infrastructure or user charges as a timely and necessary measure to support the decarbonisation of road transport and supports the proposed extension until 30 June 2031, as it provides legal and investment certainty, aligns with the CO2 performance standards and offers a concrete demand-side incentive for operators to shift towards cleaner technologies;
considers road safety a top priority, with the overarching goal of achieving zero road casualties by 2050. Protecting life, reducing the number of injuries and preventing damage to people, goods and infrastructure are essential components of this effort. Road safety is not only a matter of technical standards but also of social responsibility and good governance, and it must lie at the core of sustainable mobility strategies.
