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.
On 26-27 June, the EESC, joining forces with other civil society organisations and European institutions, hosted the annual Civil Society Days. This major gathering of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from across Europe provided strong civil society input to the reflection on the future of Europe launched by the Commission with its "White Paper on the future of Europe". A forceful call was made for a new political impetus to relaunch the EU on the basis of our fundamental values and also to express a clear commitment by civil society organisations to forge ahead. A number of key demands and civil society commitments were adopted and presented ...
The successful experience of Estonia with E-government as well as questions concerning cybersecurity were discussed during the EESC conference on the “Future development of E-government in the EU” held in Tallinn. The EESC hosted a debate on the priorities of the incoming Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU which have as an overarching goal to improve the ...
The EESC President, Georges Dassis, began his official visit to Estonia on 15 June by meeting with Minister for Education and Research Mailis Reps. The two discussed the challenges and recent successes of ...
The president of the European Parliament (EP) Antonio Tajani joined the EESC plenary session on Thursday 1 June to discuss the EP's priorities and the strengthening of cooperation between the two institutions. The EP's six priorities for this year are very much in line with the concerns of Europe's civil society, according to the EESC. They include: giving a new boost to jobs, growth and investment; addressing the social dimension of the European Union; better protecting the security of EU citizens; reforming and developing migration policy in...
Politicians and civil society must act, says the EESC
The United Nations and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) presented the film Sold – a film about human trafficking by Jeffrey D. Brown - at Brussels' Centre for Fine Arts BOZAR on 10 January 2017. Opening the screening, together with Deborah Seward (Director of UNRIC), Madi Sharma, member of the EESC, said...
"The European Citizens Initiatives (ECI) is an instrument for citizens to take a role in European policy making. After 5 years of experience we see it is not working properly. It is time for the European Commission to act upon the institutions recommendations" said Michael Smyth, EESC Vice-President in his introductory speechat the ECI DAY 2016 on 20 April in Brussels, organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). "Providing citizens with an effectively working instrument to voice their needs and concerns could have a tangible influence on European politics making it more targeted, relevant and in particular more democratic."
EESC public hearing on the revision of the ECI instrument on 22 February 2016
"Not just nice words and high ideals, but a concrete tool must be built" – this was the original idea of an instrument allowing citizens "to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required…" laid down in Article 11 of the Lisbon Treaty.
The seminar will provide an opportunity for an exchange between legal practitioners, national authorities (including Charter focal points), civil society organisations, human rights defenders, politicians and other stakeholders on how the effectiveness of legal protection and access to justice – whether through judicial or non-judicial remedies - can be effectively ensured and further improved across the EU.