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.
The Committee welcomes the Commission's legislative proposals as a step in the right direction, as they halve the GNI contribution and compensate for that with two new own resources, one based on VAT and the other on a tax on financial transactions. The EESC regrets that the text under discussion does not refer to the new own resources in order to address the key issue of budget size. The Committee regrets the fact that the Commission has not used this opportunity to provide financial support to help fulfil the obligations arising from the Treaty of Lisbon, the 2020 Strategy or the need to take measures to stimulate growth.
The proposal for an EU financial transaction tax seeks to change the short term oriented behaviour of financial actors whilst at the same time providing an own resource to the budget of the European Union that could considerably reduce the contributions by Member States based on their gross national income (GNI). The second initiative is in line with the treaties and wants the EU- budged be to a higher extent be financed by own resources. This would also put an end to the ongoing "juste retour" discussions that jeopardises the European project. The EESC welcomes these two Commission initiatives.
The EESC agrees with the proposal's general and specific objectives, as well as its principles of good governance. The CFP must ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities create long-term sustainable environmental, economic and social conditions, contributing to the availability of food supplies, implementing the precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management, aimed at exploitation of living marine biological resources that restores and maintains fish resources above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield, not later than 2015, all while meeting the requirements of EU environmental legislation. In order to achieve these objectives, the CFP must, in particular, eliminate unwanted catches of commercial stocks and gradually ensure that all catches of such stocks are landed.
..."Meanwhile, the financial and economic crisis has changed into a sovereign debt crisis because of the daily speculation against the euro, which has shifted its focus and targeted the debt of a number of European countries. The only reason for this is that the economic and political instruments to protect the euro are piecemeal, totally inadequate and, until a year ago, downright non-existent. These are the paradoxes that come from having a single monetary policy and 17 debt policies, 17 budget policies, 17 (or rather 27) economic and industrial policies, and so many voices, often contradictory, having their say and offering recipes for resolving the crisis. This is why there must be a commitment to redouble and continue the efforts made recently by the EU. It is useful, therefore, to draw up a few proposals, ..."