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The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is a consultative body of the European Union (EU) established in 1958. It is an advisory assembly composed of experts from employers' associations,trade unions and civil society organisations. Its seat, which it shares with the Committee of the Regions, is the Jacques Delors building on Belliardstraat / Rue Belliard 99 in Brussels.

Role
The European Economic and Social Committee was established by the Treaty of Rome of 1957 in order to unite different economic interest groups in an advisory body to help shape the integration of national economies in Europe into a Single Market. The creation of this Committee gave these interest groups a permanent platform to shape the policies and deliberations of the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. The EESC declares itself to be "a bridge between Europe and organised civil society".

The European Economic and Social Committee issues opinions to the European institutions on draft legislation as well as on non-legislative proposals. The EU treaties require the Committee to be consulted on a range of specified policy sectors, and in all cases where the institutions deem it appropriate. The EESC may also be consulted on an advisory basis by one of the other institutions and also issues opinions on its own initiative. Around 15% of its opinions are own-initiative opinions.

The Maastricht Treaty considerably enlarged the Committee's role. Its influence now extends to matters such as social policy, social and economic cohesion, environment, education, health, customers protection, industry, Trans-European Networks, indirect taxation and structural funds.

The Committee is an advocate for civil society also on secondary levels. Notably:
 * It strengthens the links of European civil society organizations with partners from countries applying for EU membership, with Mediterranean partner countries, with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, with India, China and Latin America.
 * It involves youth representatives in its work.

Operation
The Committee comprises three groups that reflect social and civil dialogue stakeholders: the Employers’ Group, the Workers' Group, and the Civil Society Organizations' Group. Each group formulates its own approach to the Committee’s work and engages with the other groups to seek common positions that advance the institution’s influence on policy.

The Committee leverages own-initiative and exploratory opinions to raise awareness about subjects, stakeholders and sectors it considers to have been neglected in the policymaking process.

EESC exploratory opinions drafted at the request of other institutions, sometimes before the European Commission has even drafted a specific proposal, enable the social partners within the EESC to express the expectations, concerns and needs of grassroots stakeholders.

The Committee adopts on average 170 opinions a year on a wide range of topics related to EU policies.

Membership
Currently, the EESC has 329 members. The number of members per EU state is proportional to the population of each state. Each of the three groups of the Committee – employers, workers and civil society organizations– has an equal number of members. According to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the number of members of the EESC shall not exceed 350.

Members are appointed by the Council following nominations made by the government of the respective Member State. However, once appointed, the members are completely independent of their governments. They have a renewable term of office of five years. This term is non-synchronous with the electoral cycle of the European Parliament. The current EESC term began in 2020 and will end in 2025.

Each group elects its own officers, and the entire EESC membership elects a president from its ranks. Ordinarily, the incoming president of the institution is elected as one of the three serving leaders of the Committee’s groups, and the presidency generally rotates among these groups to ensure political balance. The current President of the EESC, elected in 2023 for a two-and-a-half-year term, is Oliver Röpke.

Work
The EESC’s work is divided across six thematic sections: economic and social cohesion (ECO), single market (INT), transport energy, infrastructure and the information society (TEN), employment, social affairs and citizenship (SOC), agriculture, rural development and the environment (NAT) and external relations (REX). The EESC also has a Consultative Commission on Industrial Change (CCMI), which aims at helping the European industrial sector anticipate and adapt to the impact of globalization.

Specific matters on which the EESC works include:


 * Disability rights
 * Freedom of the press
 * Migrations
 * Renewable energy
 * Transport
 * Housing
 * Sustainable food systems
 * Circular economy
 * Artificial intelligence
 * Environmental protection in trade agreements
 * A Proposal for a EU Blue Deal

Enlargement Candidate Members
On 19 September 2023, the EESC decided to involve representatives from civil societies of EU candidate countries in the advisory work of the Committee by appointing the "Enlargement Candidate Members (ECMs)". The ECMs will participate in the preparation of the EESC opinions and Plenary meetings that focus on enlargement. The EESC is the first EU institution to formally recognize such an active role to the representatives from candidate countries.

Controversies
In October 2020, reappointment of the Polish business representative Jacek Krawczyk as member of the EESC attracted harsh criticism as the EESC faced pressure to better prevent harassment in the organization, as Mr. Krawczyk was accused of psychological harassment and was prosecuted by Belgian authorities. Besides that, the conduct of Jacek Krawczyk has been investigated by the EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF. On 20 October 2020, the European Parliament rejected the EESC’s 2018 financial accounts over its failure to deal with the harassment case. According to the words of MEP Tomáš Zdechovský, who led the budget discharge procedure, the EESC was not able to answer questions regarding its various mistakes and take appropriate measures.

Ethics policy
In January 2021 the EESC adopted a new Code of Conduct, establishing stronger sanctions for non-compliance up to and including the expulsion of a member in the case of severe misconduct.

In March 2022, the EESC adopted revised Rules of Procedure fully incorporating key provisions of the new Code of Conduct.

On 21 March 2023, the EESC Bureau approved the decision to participate in the EU Transparency Register, adhering to the interinstitutional agreement of May 2021 between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. According to the decision, EESC office-holding members are invited to meet only with interest representatives that have registered in the Transparency Register.