The Mediterranean Sea accounts for over 70% of the world's nautical tourism, which creates very significant spillover benefits for its coastal countries. This form of tourism is hampered by differing national laws in areas such as the registration of recreational craft, navigation licences and safety and tax measures, to mention the most important.
The EESC wishes to highlight changes in mindsets in companies that are paving the way to new or adjusted business models. Sustainability is a strategic issue in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and in similar national initiatives as well as in the preparation of sectoral low-carbon roadmaps at EU level. Changes in the focus and structure of companies and in international value chains are bringing new business models into being.
The opinion aims to present a detailed analysis of the current state of commercial relations between food suppliers and the large retail sector, it also intends to put forward arguments demonstrating that the traditional concept of contractual freedom sometimes invoked by those opposing the regulation of commercial relations is, in practice, largely obsolete.
The seriousness of the maritime piracy plague has not come to the full awareness of European civil society. The EESC wishes to increase the sensitivity of civil society and European public opinion in order to mobilise Member States and the EU institutions for concrete action aiming at eradicating it. The EESC welcomes the decisions of the UN Security Council and the EU to prolong the EU/NAVFOR–ATALANTA operation until December 2014, and to extend the area of operations to East and South in the Indian Ocean and in the Somali shoreline. It believes that EU NAVFOR should be given a more robust mandate with stronger engagement rules. The EESC requests EU Member States and states in accession process or having association agreements with the EU, to enforce legal actions against piracy and prosecution of pirates on the high seas according to Article 105 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982.
Download — Maritime piracy: strengthening the EU response
The EESC recommends that the European Commission and the Member States support further studies and research that would tap the potential of gifted children and young people, aiming to facilitate employment and employability within the framework of the EU and, in a context of economic crisis, enhance specialist knowledge and prevent brain drain. It also recommends that greater consideration be given to each Member State's existing models for and experience in working with highly gifted children, and presents various proposals aimed at improving educational care for children and young people with high abilities.
Download — EESC opinion: Unleashing the potential of children and young people with high intellectual abilities in the European Union
This exploratory opinion for the Cyprus Presidency examines the possibility for the European Union to develop a so-called macro-regional strategy for the Mediterranean; these integrated strategies seek to coordinate the various EU policies for a given functional & territorially defined region. The Mediterranean region is geographically very large and has varying economic, social, political and cultural features, and countries with different systems and infrastructures (EU countries, non-EU countries with EU candidate status, and non-EU countries taking part in Euro-Mediterranean cooperation). For this reason the EESC proposes that two subregional policies (for the eastern and western Mediterranean) should be set up, which would be complementary, coordinating their work with each other and with that of the macro-regional Adriatic-Ionian strategy.
Download — Macro-regional strategy in the Mediterranean
The EESC has looked very carefully at the proposed Common Strategic Framework (CSF) which is now fully integrated in the draft Common Provisions Regulation and seeks to translate the objectives of the Union's Cohesion Policy into practice through better coordination between the several EU Structural Funds. The EESC has also listened carefully to the various points of view expressed by the representatives of organised civil society during a successful and well-attended hearing. The EESC supports the creation of a Common Strategic Framework; an effective CSF will also remove the unnecessary and inefficient separation that currently exists between the key funds. The EESC cautions, however, against additional bureaucracy or administrative complexity arising from the CSF and argues for a strong and genuine implementation of the partnership principle.
