EESC Employers' Group

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België
Bruxelles / Brussel
EESC Employers' Group

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Informations de contact, plan et itinéraire, formulaire de contact, heures d'ouverture, services, évaluations, photos, vidéos et annonces de EESC Employers' Group, Rue Belliard, 99, Bruxelles / Brussel.

The Employers' Group is one of the three pillars of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), a consultative body of the European Union, representing the voice of organised Civil Society.

30/10/2026

📍 10 years after Brexit, it is time to move from managing disruption to building a pragmatic EU-UK cooperation.

Today we discussed this during our conference "Unlocking EU–UK Potential: Trade, Skills and Competitiveness", organised together with Ibec and Chambers Ireland in Dublin, with Kara Owen, British Ambassador to Ireland; Dominic Alexander Boucsein, Head of International Trade and Foreign Policy at Eurochambres; Andrea Clarke, President of South Dublin Chamber; and Anne Randles, Director of Corporate Affairs at Ornua.

Ireland offered the right place for this conversation as Irish businesses faced direct post-Brexit disruption but quickly opened new routes, diversified trade and turned uncertainty into opportunity.

As our President Sandra Parthie underlined, the UK is the EU's second-largest trading partner, accounting for over 13% of the EU's external trade. Yet, the potential remains untapped due to administrative & non-tariff barriers, particularly for SMEs. Businesses need:

✅ Stable & predictable EU–UK relationship
✅ The removal of unnecessary barriers and operational costs
✅ Increased regulatory cooperation
✅ Mutual recognition of qualifications & solutions to skills shortages

As Ambassador Kara Owen noted during a fireside chat with RTÉ Europe Editor Tony Connelly, businesses adapted impressively to the major changes Brexit produced, but significant frictions remain. Now the focus should be on reducing trade frictions and strengthening cooperation in areas of shared interest, from trade to energy

The way forward is clear: less friction, stronger cooperation and a more predictable environment for businesses. By working together on trade, skills and shared challenges, the EU and UK can unlock new opportunities and strengthen competitiveness on both sides of the Channel.

27/10/2026

Europe is our business 🌍

This is why we are setting out five new priorities to strengthen Europe's competitiveness, resilience, and economic security:

✅ Simplification and a truly functioning Single Market
✅ Innovation, technology, and skills
✅ Energy, materials, and transport
✅ Private and public finance that supports investment
✅ Trade and partnerships

European businesses are ready to innovate, invest and compete globally. What they need is a business-friendly EU environment that rewards entrepreneurship, removes barriers and enables growth.

The time for churning out strategies has passed. Now is the time for urgent delivery, showing that Europe can turn its ambition into reality.

➡️ Check out our new priorities: https://link.europa.eu/YDQtHW
🎬 Watch the video with our President Sandra Parthie and share!

23/10/2026

📢 Our October is out! This month we talk about:

🔹 Chips Act 2
🔹 Competition Policy
🔹 Employment
🔹 Skilled workforce
..and more❗

➡️ Read our newsletter: https://link.europa.eu/vNcnhC

22/10/2026

📣 It's a wrap for our October ! Here are some highlights:

📍 During the debate on "European technological sovereignty" with Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, our members stressed how EU tech sovereignty means being able to choose, innovate & act independently. As Europe invests in AI, cloud and data infrastructure, funding must remain accessible to SMEs, balanced across EU States and aligned with the Single Market.

📍 At the debate on "Eradicating poverty by 2050" with Roxana Mînzatu, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness, we underlined how the best anti-poverty policy is job creation. As employers, we see every day that employment is the surest route out of poverty and the strongest foundation for dignity, independence and opportunity. Reducing poverty starts with work, skills and effective activation and matching policies. Education and training must stay closely aligned with labour-market needs, while lifelong learning must become the norm, not the exception.

We also adopted important Opinions, including on:

➡️ Chips Act 2: https://link.europa.eu/ywdqtd
➡️ Competition Policy: https://link.europa.eu/rmPDXk
➡️ Employment Guidelines for Member States: https://link.europa.eu/FwdxPJ
➡️ Building a skilled workforce for strategic autonomy: https://link.europa.eu/vbjqgJ

👉 Find out more in our newsletter: https://link.europa.eu/vNcnhC

21/10/2026

📍 Quality jobs start with competitive businesses.

As the European Commission prepares its proposed Quality Jobs Act, we discussed how competitiveness is a driver of quality jobs with Barbara Gerstenberger, Head of Unit at Eurofound; Maxime Cerutti, Director of Social Affairs at BusinessEurope; Valentina Guerra, Director of Social Affairs at SMEunited; and Guillaume Afellat, Head of Social Affairs at SGI Europe.

🔷 A clear message emerged from the discussion: competitiveness and quality jobs are not competing objectives. They reinforce each other, as competitiveness is the basis for quality jobs. Sustainable, high-quality employment depends on successful enterprises, productivity growth, innovation, investment and skills.

Participants pointed out that there has been progress in job quality across Europe, but also warned that labour shortages, skills mismatches, demographic pressures and slower productivity growth risk undermining these gains in the future.

The debate also highlighted the importance of:

✅ Designing future EU initiatives in a way that supports competitiveness, particularly for SMEs;
✅ Investing in skills and lifelong learning;
✅ Strengthening social dialogue;
✅ Ensuring safe and supportive working environments by implementing existing rules;
✅ Simplifying by design and not proposing new legislation, with the only exception of simplifying the Workplace Directive and the Display Screen Equipment (DSE) Directive.

The challenge will be to strike the right balance: protecting workers while enabling businesses to grow, invest and create opportunities.

➡️ Read our Policy Note: https://link.europa.eu/DjnDrJ

16/10/2026

Europe’s Single Market will only succeed if SMEs can use it in practice 🎯

Speaking at Europejskie Forum Nowych Idei, the European Forum for New Ideas in Sopot, our President Sandra Parthie highlighted what small and medium-sized businesses need to grow across borders and respond to technological, economic and regulatory change.

SMEs need simplicity backed by capacity. That means:

✅ Rules that are easier to understand and apply
✅ Affordable energy, finance and technology
✅ Practical support for skills and upskilling
✅ Better protection against economic and supply-chain shocks
✅ Simpler access to cross-border markets

The discussion formed part of a broader Employers' Group presence at , which included Group members Alena Mastantuono, Antonio Garcia del Riego, Winand Quaedvlieg and Heiko Willems.

Together, the delegation reinforced a common message: Europe must create the right conditions for businesses to invest, innovate and grow by strengthening competitiveness, reducing unnecessary burdens and ensuring that the Single Market delivers tangible benefits for companies of all sizes.

➡️ Read more: https://link.europa.eu/rR9TQb

02/10/2026

📍 Equality is not only a fundamental right, it also makes economic sense.

At the European Public Diplomacy Days 2026, our President Sandra Parthie highlighted how equality is a driver of growth, competitiveness and democratic resilience, while helping businesses draw on a broader pool of talent and skills.

Turning these principles into results requires:

✅ credible implementation at home
✅ coherent and proportionate rules
✅ stronger involvement of employers and other social partners
✅ workable, rights-based standards for new technologies

Businesses need stable and inclusive societies in which people can contribute and companies can grow. Protecting equality is therefore good for rights, for resilience and for business.

01/10/2026

How can Europe strengthen its while remaining true to its founding values❓

This was the core question of the conference we co-hosted today with ELEC - European League for Economic Cooperation, and with the support of INSME - The International Network for Small and Medium Enterprises and Azimut , to discuss the future of European defence and the proposal for a stronger and more integrated European Defence Policy.

As our President Sandra Parthie said, European is not a process of rearmament, it is a policy of defending peace. But to succeed, we need a genuine European defence industrial base, adequate funding, and a shift from strategy to delivery.

Europe needs the determination to integrate more deeply, to fully unlock the Single Market and to restore global competitiveness. We cannot build credible defence and industrial capacity without a strong economic base, as Marcin Nowacki, President of the EESC Transport, Energy, and Infrastructure Section, further explained.

The discussion focused on how greater cooperation, a stronger European defence industrial base and new governance arrangements can help Europe act more effectively and speak with one voice.

A key proposal under discussion is the creation of a 'Delors Defence Committee', tasked with developing a roadmap towards a European Defence and Foreign Policy Union 🛡️

Europe's weaknesses are clear: slow decisions, fragmented efforts, and too little capacity to speak with one voice. The only answer is to move from strategy to delivery, because competitiveness, resilience and security are no longer optional. They are the conditions for our .

30/09/2026

📢 Our September is out! This month we talk about:

🔹 Simplification
🔹 Enlargement and EU Climate Policy
🔹 Financial literacy
🔹 Cloud and AI Development Act
..and more❗

➡️ Read our newsletter: https://link.europa.eu/b7Tccb

28/09/2026

🗣️ Europe needs rules that work and that enable the founding of companies, the creation of jobs, not an obstacle for them.

Companies often get accused of only wanting to achieve deregulation, some kind of free-for-all. But this is not want we want, we want rules that are simpler, clearer, proportionate and enforceable. Nothing less 🎯

👇 Learn more with our President Sandra Parthie speaking at at the debate on Better Regulation with Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.

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Rue Belliard, 99
Brussels
1040

Téléphone

Tel: +32 (0)2 546 90 11

Site Web

http://www.eesc.europa.eu/employers-group

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