Supports the ETS as a key instrument of the Green Deal, but stresses that its impact on jobs, regional economies and sectoral competitiveness must be properly assessed.
Warns of unintended consequences, including cost shifts impacting corporations and employment in other sectors too, investment risks and potential relocations, especially in the maritime and port sectors.
Calls for improvements to the impact assessments of ETS design, including better economic modelling, ex post impact assessments, and a stronger focus on global coordination, notably through the IMO for shipping.
Stresses the urgent need for targeted EU action to reduce disparities in financial literacy across Member States and population groups.
Calls for financial education to start at an early age and be included in school curricula, while also supporting lifelong learning and skills for entrepreneurs.
Warns against the rise in financial fraud and calls for greater public awareness, regulatory action, and investment in cybersecurity.
Highlights the positive role of trade unions in boosting productivity through collective bargaining, workplace innovation, and inclusive decision-making models such as co-management and works councils.
Calls for stronger collaboration between unions, employers and governments to promote training, reduce absenteeism, support fair digital transitions, and improve workplace environments.
Urges investment in human capital and SMEs and supports the involvement of trade unions in setting sector-specific productivity benchmarks that reflect long-term, sustainable business performance.
considers it very important to strengthen the role of European companies in supply chains, including in leadership positions, to support a competitive and sustainable production model throughout the chain, which benefits regions, companies and workers;
recommends developing urgent measures to strengthen the EU internal market, ensuring strategic autonomy and production capacity. In particular, this means advancing EU industrial and competition policies rooted in sustainable competitiveness and innovation;
highlights the need for detailed mapping of supply chains, by analysing individual sectors and levels of company involvement, in order to design targeted policies that address sector-specific challenges and development opportunities, including at regional level.
emphasises the importance of making regulations simpler, and points out how digital tools – including AI and e-government platforms – can boost transparency, efficiency, and accountability in EU law-making;
recommends that all new legal acts at the EU, national, regional, and local levels include a clear summary of obligations, and suggests the same should be done for existing legislation to make regulations more accessible;
stresses the need for a unified, interoperable EU digital platform for lawmaking. This platform would centralise texts and metadata, enable real-time consistency checks, help assess legal interdependencies, and encourage the use of harmonised language.
welcomes the European Commission’s ambition to establish a ‘fifth freedom’, which must include mechanisms to counter disinformation and pseudoscience, build trust in scientific institutions, and promote ‘knowledge literacy’;
calls on the Commission to pursue measures and incentives addressing the challenges linked to scale-ups of firms, of cross-border mobility of people and accessibility of funds and investments;
underlines the importance of a 3% GDP national spending target for research & innovation (R&I), asking for an additional 1% for preparedness and dual-use research. To initiate a breakthrough, the EESC calls for national R&I investments to be decoupled from deficit rules until the 3% spending target is met. In addition, other funds (e.g. cohesion) should be increasingly used and aligned with R&I activities.
Calls for a coordinated EU strategy on the cost-of-living crisis, combining long-term reforms and immediate support for vulnerable groups. This includes fairer taxation, better social protection, green and digital transitions, and greater access to affordable housing.
Stresses the need for strong, inclusive economic structures, including quality public services, a robust industrial base, and fair labour markets. It supports affordable SGIs, SME support, quality jobs, and the role of education, training, and dialogue in boosting resilience.
Urges action to ease structural cost pressures, with reforms to energy markets and taxation, reduced fossil fuel subsidies, lighter administrative burdens, and stronger investment in infrastructure and essential services, backed by sustainable public finances.
Urges the EU to make affordable housing a strategic priority in cohesion policy beyond 2027, stressing its importance for economic competitiveness, labour mobility and regional cohesion.
Calls for a comprehensive EU framework on affordable housing, backed by greater investment, innovative financial instruments, and coordinated action involving local authorities, civil society and the EIB.
Recommends adapting EU rules, including State aid and SGEI definitions, and exempting housing investments from debt calculations under the Stability and Growth Pact, while linking housing policy to climate goals, labour market needs and social rights.
underscores the strategic importance of a high-quality, inclusive education and a skilled workforce for Europe’s competitiveness, social cohesion, and sustainable development. Addressing current challenges requires bold, systemic reforms and investment in inclusive, high-quality education and training systems;
stresses that the success of the Union of skills depends on effective and cooperative governance, adequate financing, and inclusive representation of social partners, national authorities and other stakeholders, including civil society organisations, teachers and learners
