26 September 2025
On 23 September 2025, the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) adopted its position and negotiating mandate on the Commission’s proposed traineeship directive, and voted favourably to start interinstitutional negotiations. If no objections are raised during the announcement of the mandate at Parliament’s upcoming plenary session, talks with the Council on the final form of the directive can begin.
In the adopted report, MEPs call for stronger rules to improve the quality of traineeships across the EU, including clearer conditions, limits on successive renewals, and provisions on fair remuneration. You can read more about it here.
While recognising Parliament’s ambition to strengthen the framework, SGI Europe regrets that the adopted mandate does not sufficiently take into account the diversity of national practices and industrial relations systems. In particular, SGI Europe has stressed that active labour market policy traineeships should be excluded from the scope, as adding new regulatory demands would risk discouraging employers from offering such opportunities. It also emphasises that the possibility of differentiated treatment of trainees on objective grounds should be maintained, as traineeships are primarily a learning phase. Furthermore, it stipulates that social partners must be able to implement or derogate from the directive through collective agreements, in line with national systems.
SGI Europe will continue to closely follow the trilogue negotiations, engaging with EU institutions to ensure that the final directive strikes a balance between protecting trainees and the practical realities for employers offering such opportunities.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Wednesday 24 September 2025, the Council and the Parliament reached an agreement on the ‘Omnibus II’ package, which aims at simplifying the InvestEU programme. It is the first Omnibus package agreed by the co-legislators.
The agreement on simplifying the InvestEU programme will further support certain EU policies, particularly those related to the Competitiveness Compass and the Clean Industrial Deal. The revised legislation also aims to facilitate member states' contributions to the programme and streamline administrative requirements.
The provisional agreement reached today improves and reinforces the existing ‘Invest EU’ programme by increasing the size of the EU guarantee by €2.9 billion (from €26.2 billion to €29.1 billion). It also aims at facilitating the combined use of the ‘Invest EU’ guarantee with existing capacity available under three legacy programmes: the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) debt instrument and the so-called ‘InnovFin debt facility’, an initiative launched by the EIB group in support of research and innovation.
The revised regulation will also reduce the administrative burden on implementing partners, financial intermediaries, and final recipients, with an estimated cost savings of about €350 million. In particular, the provisional agreement revises the definition of SMEs and reduces the number of indicators on which implementing partners will need to report for small-sized operations not exceeding €300,000. It also reduces the frequency and scope of reporting obligations from implementing partners, going from semi-annual to annual reporting.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On 24 September, the SGI Europe Sustainability Board met again in Brussels, chaired by Alain Taccoen. The agenda covered various topics related to the EU Climate agenda, as well as security of supply in the energy sector and critical infrastructures, reactions to the EU Water Resilience strategy, and preparations for an SGI-friendly EU Circular Economy Act.
During the meeting, SGI Europe members welcomed guest speaker Niels Schuster, Senior Policy Advisor to the Director-General at DG CLIMA. He briefed the members on the challenging political discussions concerning a proposed 90% climate target for 2040. The exchange with Mr Schuster was open and highlighted the multi-dimensional role that Services of General Interest (SGIs) play in meeting EU climate goals. The conversation underscored the importance of a technology-neutral approach for effective on-the-ground implementation. SGI Europe also emphasised the crucial role of SGIs in the climate and energy transition, highlighting the importance of a socially just transition that prioritises green skills and fosters social dialogue.
While the EU Council and its ministers are indeed in the process of finalising their decision on the EU Climate targets, recent reports indicate that the Environment Council was unable to reach an agreement on the proposed amendment to the EU Climate Law. The matter has since been referred to the heads of state and government for a decision, with a meeting planned for late October.
Therefore, the EU's ambition to have binding targets finalised before the COP30 in November is currently facing a tight deadline due to the ministers' inability to agree on the amendments.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On September 24, the think tank Bruegel published a working paper titled ‘Advantages and pitfalls of green public procurement as a European strategic tool’. With its sights set on the upcoming reform of public procurement rules, the paper examines the potential of public procurement as a tool to support the EU's broader agenda, including decarbonization, industrial policy, and geopolitical goals.
While arguing that green public procurement (GPP) is important, the authors acknowledge that it can create tension with other EU objectives such as strategic autonomy or fiscal stability. Furthermore, they believe that using public procurement for strategic goals can only be effective if those goals remain consistent with each other. This is because conflicting objectives could lead to longer procurement procedures, decreased competition, more administrative burden, and higher prices and costs for public authorities.
Additionally, they highlight that, if paired with buy-European criteria, GPP risks undermining the fundamental role of the EU as an advocate for a rule-based free global trade.
To make GPP a viable solution, the paper concludes that GPP conditions should complement existing policies by offering an alternative approach to decarbonization, rather than imposing additional obligations on companies. It also recommends that GPP criteria be part of the award stage, rather than the eligibility stage, at least initially. Finally, it calls for a harmonised framework across Member States to avoid fragmentation and for the use of joint and collaborative procurement and demand aggregation tools, when possible, to offset any cost increases associated with GPP.
Contact: Raquel Carro-Andollo
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