recommends creating a dedicated EU investment fund within the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). This fund could be supported by contributions from member states, new EU own resources, and joint debt issuance, and should allocate resources based on clear social criteria;
emphasises the importance of public funding as a catalyst to unlock private investments, particularly in sectors that are not yet profitable, such as green energy and strategic infrastructure like energy grids and hydrogen pipelines;
advocates for complementing the EU’s fiscal rules (Stability and Growth Pact) with a robust investment strategy, ensuring long-term climate and digital transition goals are met without compromising fiscal sustainability;
An ageing society faces distinct challenges compared to a society with a more balanced age distribution. Upholding the right to age with dignity, along with a life-cycle approach is essential to addressing these challenges;
The EESC’s proposals for achieving more sustainable societal development include: striving for higher birth rates, exploiting the full potential of the labour market, making work pay by having high-quality, well-paid and productive jobs, improving working conditions, reforming pension and care systems to ensure accessibility for everyone, enhancing legal migration pathways to attract in particular foreign talent supported by bold integration measures, working towards upward regional and social cohesion and analysing the factors driving people to leave the EU;
The EESC recommends that the European Commissioner for Demography be supported by an appropriate structure within the European Commission, and that a European agency for demography be set up to ensure research and statistics in this field, while at the same time ensuring collaboration with and sufficient financing for existing agencies like Cedefop and Eurofound. This would facilitate the integration of demographic consideration in all relevant policy areas and impact assessments.
believes that Member States and higher education institutions (HEIs) should enhance quality, fairness, equality, and social inclusion in higher education, adapting recommendations to their contexts;
urges the EU to safeguard academic freedom and institutional autonomy;
supports fostering joint programmes among HEIs within and beyond European University Alliance projects, ensuring quality assurance and including all relevant stakeholdersin their implementation;
emphasises the need for broad collaboration among stakeholders to effectively implement the initiatives, particularly highlighting the fundamental values of student and staff participation following the Bologna Process.
underlines that youth participation mechanisms need to be transparent for every stakeholder and that the interests and concerns of young people need to be considered at each stage of the policy-making cycle;
points at the importance of having monitoring and dissemination strategies in place in each youth participation mechanism to inform young people of the impact that their participation has had, including in EU Youth Dialogue (EUYD) processes;
suggests that information on EUYD outcomes should be compiled at pre-agreed intervals and focus on all cycles of the EUYD to be able to track policy and other outcomes linked to particular EUYD cycles.
believes that in order to close the innovation gap between EU Members States, three major issues need to be addressed: (1) ensuring access to research and innovation funding in all Member States, (2) providing access to adequate research support infrastructure and professionals, and (3) tackling co-financing burdens;
calls on the European Commission to develop, with the involvement of companies, trade unions, CSOs and regions, a Bureaucracy Reduction Action Plan in order to identify overlapping regulations, and to reduce compliance burdens and reporting obligations;
calls on the European Commission to follow up on teaming for excellence actions and on closing the innovation gap between Member States, particularly in Widening Countries (15 Member States at a disadvantage in R&I), including in view of the preparation for the next research framework programme.
regrets that exclusion from the labour market is still a widespread issue, especially affecting women with disabilities and people with the most severe disabilities and believes that solutions such as sheltered employment often end up perpetrating segregation;
urges Member States to promote policies and measures that strengthen access to the open labour market and the Commission to implement the related policy actions under the Disability Employment Package;
calls on the Member States to step up the employment of persons with disabilities, for example through a joint fund for reasonable accommodation. Such fund would be financed by private and public employers who fall short of any set quotas.
asks the Commission and Member States to adopt policies reducing economic and educational inequalities, as these factors hinder cultural participation, particularly in rural areas. It also recommends creating and strengthening programs to eliminate various barriers (physical, economic, linguistic, etc.) to ensure inclusive cultural participation, with a focus on marginalized and discriminated groups;
proposes that the EU and Member States adopt budgetary strategies for supporting cultural policies in sparsely populated rural areas as a key pillar for sustainable development. It recommends integrating public investment and infrastructure development into a broader strategy to revitalize rural regions, attracting private investment and increasing cultural participation;
recommends integrating more cultural and artistic training in school curricula, and encourages specialised cultural professionals to settle in rural areas to drive local development.
points out that there is still a long way to go to reach the final objectives of decarbonisation and transition to a more sustainable economy, objectives that were set out by the Commission in its original Green Deal formulation. Companies need much more certainty, global agreement, guidance, sophisticated accountability methods and, ultimately, support from legislators;
highlights the urgent need for public funds to be strategically allocated to goals that are jointly agreed on by European policy-makers and civil society. This initiative must be closely interlinked with the industrial strategy;
emphasises that Member States need EU-level support and civil society input to assist companies through guidance, benchmarking and shared learning capacities to adopt and carry out the structural reforms flowing from the Green Deal: bolstering employment rates, enhancing access to skills and labour, and promoting flexibility and efficiency in labour markets.
calls on the European Commission to adopt a coordinated, cross-cutting EU approach to intergenerational solidarity, ensuring the rights of both young and older people. Moreover, intergenerational solidarity should be one of the criteria for assessing whether legislation and other EU instruments contribute to the aims set out in Article 3(3) TEU: ‘The Union (...) shall promote (...) solidarity between generations;
welcomes the intention to appoint an EU Commissioner with responsibility for intergenerational fairness. The EESC will consider hosting an Intergenerational Solidarity Forum for the exchange of information and experience, evaluating existing and developing new concepts of and strategies for intergenerational solidarity as well as, in cooperation with the European Commission, to monitor the implementation of the opinion's recommendations. Civil society organisations and social partners’ involvement is key in implementing the recommendations, given their important role in promoting intergenerational solidarity;
calls on the European Commission to publish a Green Paper on Intergenerational Solidarity, which may include, within the context of the Welfare State, challenges, opportunities and solutions in the various fields mentioned in this opinion. Requests establishing intergenerational solidarity as one of the objectives under the European Social Fund in the 2027-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework and its implementing regulations.
believes that mental health literacy for the whole of society is needed, both to fight stigma and to facilitate an early intervention and diagnosis of mental health conditions;
considers that relevant policies should aim for an integrated mental health system based on cooperation among the sectors of education, employment, social care and mental health care;
believes empowerment and support for self-representation are key to ensuring the full participation of people in what concerns them and to co-producing strategies and programmes. This involves the planning, design, provision and evaluation of care. It should be accompanied by technical and financial support for forms of self-management.
