REX/565 – Forced labour products ban (adopted on 25/01/2023)
At its January plenary session, the EESC adopted an opinion on the Forced labour products ban. The EESC welcomes the European Commission's proposal for a regulation banning products made with forced labour from the EU market. The Committee supports the proposal to issue guidelines to assist companies with identifying, preventing, mitigating and bringing to an end any risk of forced labour in their operations and value chains.
Furthermore, the EESC highlights the importance of transparency and open access to information for companies, competent authorities, organised civil society and the general public, and proposes to introduce a benchmarking system as part of the database – the core instrument of the ban. The EESC also stresses that, at national level, organised civil society has a central role to play in combating all forms of forced or compulsory labour.
Finally, the EESC asks the Commission to study the feasibility of a public EU rating agency for environmental and social sustainability, as well as for human rights in the business context and calls for EU support for a binding UN treaty on business and human rights, as well as for consideration to be given to a possible ILO convention on decent work in supply chains. Watch more
REX 561 - The power of trade partnerships: together for green and just economic growth (adopted on 25/01/2023)
All modern EU trade agreements since Korea (2011) include chapters on trade and sustainable development (TSD), with mutually agreed commitments on environmental and labour standards. The recent Commission Communication on the TSD review The power of trade partnerships: together for green and just economic growth identifies priorities and actions to further enhance the effectiveness of the current engagement-based approach to TSD.
The EESC supports the comprehensive review setting a new benchmark on TSD and welcomes the fact that the Commission took up a number of its recommendations in the action points, in particular on reinforcing the role of civil society and of the Domestic Advisory Groups (DAGs). The latter could be further strengthened at the level of both agreements and implementation, but the EESC regrets that no action is being taken to involve civil society more thoroughly during the negotiation process.
EESC rapporteur Tanja Buzek emphasised the need for clearer and more detailed TSD provisions to help trade partners better understand what is expected of them. It is also regrettable that the just transition was not made an overarching concept, despite its official recognition in the Paris Agreement.
REX 562 - The EU Strategic Compass (adopted on 25/01/2023)
The EESC opinion on The EU Strategic Compass calls for an expansion of the current concept of security and for a reflection on strategic interdependence. The Committee believes that the Compass should further involve civil society, which can contribute to building greater resilience against hybrid attacks and the systematic undermining of cohesion and solidarity within and between the EU Member States by inimical powers.
Furthermore, the EESC affirms that, so far, the EU and NATO have not fully harnessed the potential of their cooperation. Finally, the opinion calls on the EU to take more responsibility and create a European Defence Union as the European pillar of NATO, and states that, while the EU advocates peace and for considering the use of military power as a last resort in conflict prevention and resolution, it is essential that the EU is able to defend itself robustly when necessary. Read more