Since the COVID-19 pandemic, health has become a central topic on the geopolitical stage. The EU Global Health Strategy, launched at the end of 2022, shows the political path forward, guiding the EU’s role in advancing health for all beyond 2023. This own-initiative opinion will examine four key dimensions: strategic autonomy in health; structural trends in health and related sectors; health coordination; and security, defence and the mitigation of major shocks.
Tuairimí atá idir lámha (updated on 27/06/2024) - Bureau decision date: 29/05/2024
Confronted with increasing instability, increased strategic competition and growing security threats, the EU committed to taking greater responsibility for its security and to taking further decisive action to build open European sovereignty, reduce its dependencies and develop a new growth and investment model for 2030 and beyond.
Tuairimí atá idir lámha (updated on 20/06/2024) - Bureau decision date: 18/01/2024
This own-initiative opinion stems from the European Commission call for an "Industry 5.0" based on: human centricity, sustainability and resilience. Industry 5.0 aims thus at broadening the previous concept of Industry 4.0, providing a transformative vision for a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry. This opinion will reflect on how to concretely implement the concept of Industry 5.0.
This opinion is part of the EESC pilot "Enlargement Candidate Members (ECM)" where representatives from Turkey will take part in the study groups an in the Section meeting. The Turkish representatives are: Özgür Burak Akkol (Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TİSK), for Group I), Cavit Demiral (Confederation of Turkish Real Trade for Group II) and Ayşe Yürekli (Women Entrepreneurs Association of Türkiye, for Group III).
Tuairimí atá idir lámha (updated on 20/06/2024) - Bureau decision date: 29/05/2024
On 27 February 2024, the European Commission published a Communication setting out a European strategy to ensure industrial leadership in advanced materials. Advanced materials are an important factor for the competitiveness of European industries and constitute crucial building blocks for the EU’s resilience and strategic autonomy. The EESC will provide input to the European Commission on how to create a dynamic, secure and inclusive ecosystem for advanced materials in Europe that ensures our continent's leadership in this area and supports the competitiveness of EU industries.
EESC section opinion: Advanced materials for industrial leadership – a coordinated plan with Member States
In this regard we would focus on two topics: key issues of the social integration, complex rehabilitation, and occupational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities and changed working capacity and initiate an EU-level thinking regarding the requirement of reasonable accommodation: through the identification of basic principles in all areas of life, possible definition(s) as well as barriers of implementation in practice.
This subject matter is fully in line with the priorities of the Hungarian Presidency in the social field, as this topic will be explored both through council conclusions and during high level events. An explanatory opinion on this topic would provide significant synergies with the activities planned during the Hungarian Presidency, and would be compatible with the overarching presidency priority, i.e. demographic issues.
