Present EESC term to end with opinions on aviation, corruption, the economy, social dumping in road freight, European tax and more.

The EESC September plenary session will look back on achievements made during the last two and half year term of the Presidency of the Committee and debate and adopt over 30 opinions.

Venue: Charlemagne building, 170, rue de la Loi, Brussels

Schedule: September 16 (starting 2.30pm) and 17 September (all day)

During the last plenary session of its current five-year term, the European Economic and Social Committee will look back on the achievements of its outgoing President, Henry Malosse, and its two Vice-Presidents: Jane Morrice, responsible for communication, and Hans-Joachim Wilms, in charge of the budget.

The first plenary session of the new term will be held on 6-8 October when new EESC members will meet for the first time and elect a new President and Vice-Presidents.

Watch the plenary session here - The full agenda is available here

Highlights of Opinions to be put to the vote during the plenary session:

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  CCMI/132 Fighting corruption

In June 2011, the Commission adopted a Communication on Fighting Corruption in the EU, establishing the EU Anti-Corruption Report to monitor and assess Member States' efforts in this area with a view to developing a stronger political engagement to address corruption effectively. Corruption is defined in the report in a broad sense as "any abuse of power for private gain".

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  TEN/565 Social Dumping in the European civil aviation sector

In its opinion on Social Dumping in the European civil aviation sector, the EESC raises the issue of increased use of false self-employed workers and temporary employment agencies. Given the fact that airlines are facing fierce competition, the profit margins are lower than in other industries employers are looking for ways to cut costs in order to remain competitive. Jobs that used to be prestigious and high-quality some years ago are disappearing and being outsourced or replaced by higher productivity and less expensive labour.

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  TEN/569 Integrated EU Aviation Policy

EU aviation is struggling to remain globally competitive. The traditional business models of numerous players across the value chain - manufacturers, airport operators, airlines, air traffic control, support services - are under growing pressure from various competitors. The EESC believes that this is directly related to the lack of a truly European aviation policy. The EESC opinion provides concrete proposals for an Integrated EU Aviation Policy.

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  TEN/575 Internal market of international road freight: social dumping and cabotage

This opinion focuses on social dumping in the road transport sector. Data shows that social dumping exists and represents a risk to the internal market and to workers' rights. The EESC demands therefore measures to be taken to tackle this problem, such as a more active implementation and enforcement of existing Directives, and to deploy the European Register of Road Transport Undertakings.

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  NAT/661 Rural Development Programmes - Sticking Plasters or Green Shoots of Recovery?

One should recognise the importance of the EU's rural development programmes and evaluate their potential contribution to revitalizing rural areas

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  NAT/663 Opportunities and processes for civil society involvement in the implementation of the Post-2015 agenda in the EU

EESC shall contribute to making civil society a driving force in the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by organising a European Sustainable Development Forum together with civil society organisations and EU institutions

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  INT/770 Building a financial ecosystem for social enterprises

The opinion prepared to respond to a request from the Luxemburg EU presidency aims to explore the concept of a financial ecosystem from the perspective of social enterprises, and the main characteristics and necessary conditions needed to fully build an adequate and effective European framework for the financing and investment into social economy.

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  SOC/520 Principles for effective and reliable welfare provision systems

This opinion sets out social policy principles for welfare provision systems, which the Commission should take up in a solid work programme, include into the European Semester exercise and apply through the structural funds, the open method of coordination and social impact assessment.

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  SOC/523 Improving the performance of national work-based learning systems

Developing a benchmark to measure the correlation between dual training systems and youth unemployment would be a powerful tool to ensure the necessary policy attention for the apprenticeship agenda and to recommend dual training systems to Member states where they do not exist or do not function well.

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  ECO/377 A European tax as an EU own resource

Currently the EU budget is largely made up of Member State contributions. A high level group chaired by Mario Monti was tasked with preparing a change to this and make a step towards genuine EU own resources. The EESC is contributing to the work of this group and proposes a new European environmental tax, which would be based on taxing how much energy is consumed and CO2 emitted in the production process of a good.

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  ECO/378 Economy for the Common Good

Since the current economic model has exhausted its capacity to continue guaranteeing the well-being of the population as a whole, the Economy for the Common Good (ECG) model offers a viable alternative that is supported by European society. Since the current economic model has exhausted its capacity to continue guaranteeing the well-being of the population as a whole, the Economy for the Common Good model proposes an alternative that is gaining support in European society

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  ECO/380 the Community Method for a Democratic and Social EMU

"Social, political and economic cohesion must be strengthened to avert a break-up of the euro area. To ensure the democratic and social development of EMU, the EESC calls for greater "parliamentarisation" of the euro area, social impact assessments of all measures under the European Semester, the removal of divergences in the functioning of labour markets, and deepening of the macroeconomic dialogue in the euro area."

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  REX 439 Agriculture, rural areas and sustainable development in the Eastern Partnership countries

The opinion focuses on the reform of agriculture and on socio-economic development of rural areas in the Eastern Partnership countries, as well as the EU support in this regard.

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  REX 445 - For an ILO Convention against gender violence at the workplace

The EESC calls on the Member States and European social partners to support the proposal for an international standard on gender-based violence at the workplace

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  CCMI/136 - Effects of digitalisation on employment in service industries

As shown in numerous CCMI opinions on European industrial and service sectors these continued processes of digitalisation challenge several areas, notably in the field of employment: On the one hand, they may constitute an opportunity to increase workers' autonomy and work life balance. On the other hand, they may put welfare systems and the quality of employment in Europe under strain.

For more information, please contact:

Chloé LAHOUSSE, EESC Press Unit

E-mail: press@eesc.europa.eu

Tel: + 32 2 546 8893 / +32 473 86 70 00

@EESC_PRESS