Evropski ekonomsko-socialni odbor
The European Economic and Social Committee is organising the Second edition of the AI Europe stakeholder Summit entitled: White paper on artificial intelligence - What civil society has to say? The Summit will focus particularly on two topics: 1) Use of AI in the workplace and 2) AI-driven biometric recognition systems (including facial recognition).
On 25 March 2020, the EESC and Arizmendiarrieta Foundation are hosting a half-day conference "Towards a new European company model for the 21st century" in Brussels (EESC premises, room VMA3) with a debate focusing on the role of businesses in today's society.
At a time when markets are not working as well as they should, inequalities are rising and the environment is suffering, companies can play a crucial role and change the rules of the game. They can do so by putting people and the planet at the core of their model – that is by going back to the humanistic roots of Europe's culture.
The EESC organised its 4th edition of the European Day of Social Economy Enterprises in Strasbourg, on 27 November. The event which was coorganised by the City of Strasbourg and the Eurometropole, and the French Ministry for an ecological and solidary transition was entitled ''The Social Economy: mobilising cities, regions and civil society. Pact for Impact for the European Union''. The aim of the event was to review the progress made in setting up an ecosystem for social enterprises and to see what are the next steps for this model of enterprise model to be recognized and more widely disseminated.
The aim of the conference was to discuss the opportunities and challenges provided by digitalisation, in particular cutting-edge digital tools, AI and robotics as well as the prerequisites to make this happen. It also addressed expectations for future steps of policy making on the European Level.
The European Standardisation System must become as inclusive as possible, to involve a wide range of participants (representative of businesses of all sizes, consumers and societal stakeholders such as trade unions, environmental NGOs, etc.) and develop close cooperation among partners (European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs), National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs) and public authorities at the European and national levels).
As productivity continues to increase, providing highly-specialised and certified-quality products becomes ever more important for boosting economic well-being, more so than mass low-cost production. Moreover, the increasing focus on the integrated use-value of products and services now offsets the emphasis on the exchange value - the price.
This development is particularly advantageous for European producers: our competitiveness relies on our ability to provide diverse, specialised products, rather than on competing on price against regions with more extended economies of scale.
The European Economic and Social Committee is organizing a hearing as part of its follow-up work on its opinion on ''A European retail sector fit for the 21st century'', which was adopted in December 2018.
The event will take place on 26 September 2019 in Brussels. It is part of a series of follow-up hearings to be held in several EU Member States.
The main objective of the hearing will be to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency of EU retail policies and to collect valuable input and feedback from Belgian stakeholders on the issue in order to find ways to improve these policies. Particular emphasis will be placed on the recommendations presented in the EESC opinion with a view to their implementation at national level.
The European Economic and Social Committee is organizing a hearing as part of its follow-up work on its opinion on ''A European retail sector fit for the 21st century'', which was adopted in December 2018. The event will take place on 27 June 2019. It is part of a series of follow-up hearings to be held in several EU Member States.
The main objective of the hearing will be to discuss the effectiveness and efficiency of EU retail policies and to collect valuable input and feedback from Polish stakeholders on the issue in order to find ways to improve these policies. Particular emphasis will be placed on the recommendations presented in the EESC opinion with a view to their implementation at national level.
The objective of the hearing will be to give the floor to experts in the field, but also to answer questions on how can the EU Single Market and its citizens benefit from fully operational European Blockchain infrastructure.
In the framework of its own initiative opinion on "Blockchain and distributed ledger technology as an ideal infrastructure for Social Economy", the EESC organizes on 29 May 2019 a public hearing on "Blockchain: technology for the social economy 4.0".
The objective of the hearing will be to give the floor to experts in the field, but also to present case studies aiming at showing how Social Economy can benefit from this new technology.
