Newsflash - 28 March 2025

Register to attend the event “EU Way of Competitiveness” organised by the EP intergroup on Social Economy and Services of General Interest

SGI Europe, together with the MEPs involved in the European Parliament’s intergroup on Social Economy and Services of General Interest, will organise the first event of the Intergroup on Tuesday 8 April 2025, from 15:30 to 17:00, at the European Parliament (room A3H1).

Focused on ‘The EU Way of Competitiveness’, this event will highlight the role of SGIs in promoting social, territorial and economic cohesion in the EU. It will also showcase SGIs as an essential pillar of the new approach to increase the economy's overall competitiveness while strengthening the single market across Europe, consequently boosting social cohesion and the long-term sustainability of Europe’s growth and competitiveness. 

This event will be the opportunity for SGI providers from the ground to exchange with MEPs, EU institutions representatives and external stakeholders on the contribution of SGIs to the EU competitiveness and strategic autonomy.

To register, please fill out the form here.

Contact: Benoït Cassorla

SGI Europe approves its position paper on European Water Resilience Strategy

On 26 March, SGI Europe officially approved its position paper on the European Water Resilience Strategy (EWRS), titled "Building towards a Water Conscious Future Key Recommendations for a European Water Resilience Strategy". In this position paper, SGI Europe welcomes the European Commission’s announcement to establish the EWRS, recognising its potential to position water resilience as a key consideration across sectors while ensuring robust protection of water bodies.

For SGI Europe, the EWRS is a cornerstone for EU environmental policymaking, aiming to create a strategic, action-oriented water agenda. SGI Europe emphasises the urgent need to address growing water-related challenges, including extreme weather events, droughts, floods, and increasing water demand from industries, agriculture, and households. Climate change has only intensified these challenges, making a strategic, unified approach critical to addressing these issues.

The position paper includes several key recommendations:

• Coherent implementation of EU legislation: SGI Europe calls for the effective implementation of EU water and environmental laws, focusing on protection and prevention at the source.
• Pollution prevention at the source: Nature-based solutions and enforcing the polluter-pays principle are essential to reduce water treatment costs and improve water quality.
• Transboundary cooperation: Water resilience in the EU requires cross-border cooperation, strengthened river basin commissions, and binding agreements to address shared water challenges, ensuring sustainable supply and quality through data sharing and coordinated efforts across international river basins
• Public oversight of water resources: SGI Europe pleads that the responsibility for water resources by public authorities in close cooperation with the water operators for their management is key for enabling swift, equitable responses to water crises, ensuring long-term resilience over short-term economic interests.
• Investing in water infrastructure: SGI Europe urges Member States to prioritise investment in water infrastructure to address aging systems and climate challenges at the national and European levels.

Contact: Henriette Gleau

Presentation of the EU Preparedness Union Strategy

On Wednesday 27 March, the European Commission unveiled its EU Preparedness Union Strategy, a comprehensive approach to enhancing the EU’s ability to anticipate, respond to, and recover from crises. The strategy builds on lessons from past emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and energy shocks, to strengthen Europe’s resilience across critical sectors.

The Strategy includes 30 key actions and a detailed Action Plan to advance the Preparedness Union's objectives and develop a ‘preparedness by design culture' across all EU policies.

SGI Europe welcomes this initiative as an essential recognition of the vital role of Services of General Interest (SGIs) in ensuring resilience and preparedness. SGIs are at the frontline of crisis response and recovery, from hospitals and utilities to public transport and broadband networks. The upcoming Social Partners Preparedness Summit will also be the occasion to highlight social dialogue’s role in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis, as well as the need for active engagement with policymakers to develop the EU’s crisis anticipation and management successfully.

Contact: Maxime Staelens

Seminar of the EU Social Partners paves the way for the negotiations of a future work programme

SGI Europe participated in the joint social partners' Labour Market Challenges Seminar at the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel. Organised in cooperation with the European Commission and the other cross-sectoral social partners (ETUC, BusinessEurope, and SMEunited), the event marked the starting point in the follow-up to the Pact for Social Dialogue, signed earlier this month.

Throughout two half-day sessions, social partners reflected on significant labour market challenges with contributions from speakers including André Sapir (Senior Fellow at Bruegel) and Maria Jepsen (Deputy Director at Eurofound). Discussions focused on shared concerns such as skills mismatches, productivity, AI at work, health and safety (including mental health).

For SGI Europe, the seminar also provided an opportunity to promote the needs of services of general interest, including the challenges faced by SGI providers and employers due to demographic ageing, climate change and digitalisation, and to highlight the importance of ensuring continued delivery of quality SGIs in a changing geopolitical and economic context.

The event was a first step towards negotiating a new cross-sectoral work programme, with employers and trade unions engaging in separate discussions to map out preliminary positions. A second seminar will follow on 30 April, aiming to merge these contributions into a consolidated reference document to guide the negotiations from September 2025 onward.

SGI Europe remains committed to shaping a balanced, forward-looking work programme and will continue its work of representation of SGI providers in the upcoming seminars.

Contact: Guillaume Afellat

"Utilities and European Competitiveness": Event organised by Utilitalia at the European Parliament

On 26 March 2025, Utilitalia hosted the event “The Contribution of Utilities to European Competitiveness” at the European Parliament, supported by MEP Antonella Sberna (IT, ECR, Vice-President of the European Parliament). Experts and several MEPs – including Annalisa Corrado (IT, S&D), Letizia Moratti (IT, EPP), Nicola Procaccini (IT, ECR), and Paolo Borchia (IT, PEG) – discussed the strategic role of Utilities in the environment, energy, and water sectors.

Filippo Brandolini, President, and Roberto Tasca, Vice-President for European Affairs, highlighted Utilitalia’s increasingly significant role at the European level. They explained, as well, that energy transition, decarbonisation, energy prices, innovation, digitalisation, and the circular economy are among the key challenges the European Union will face in the future, areas where utilities can make a decisive contribution.

Closing the event, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe’s General Secretary, stressed the crucial role of Services of General Interest in boosting European competitiveness. She also highlighted the significance of the Parliamentary Intergroup on Social Economy & Services of General Interest, including the upcoming 8 April event on "The EU Way of Competitiveness."

Call for tenders: SGI Europe is looking for a graphic designer for the Finance4EPSR project

As part of the Finance for the European Pillar of Social Rights (Fiinance4EPSR) project, SGI Europe is seeking to subcontract a graphic designer or a communication agency to support the project team in the final stages of the project implementation. Under the guidance of SGI Europe, the selected contractor will be responsible for designing a user-friendly, visually engaging digital version of the self-assessment tool - currently under development - and for producing a short video tutorial of approximately 3 minutes to guide users on how to navigate and use the tool. The contractor will also be expected to align the format and design of the deliverables with the visual identities of SGI Europe and of the Finance4EPSR project. 

These services will support the visibility, accessibility, and usability of the project outputs and will contribute to the dissemination and capacity-building objectives of the Finance4EPSR project which aims to create a capacity-building framework that enables Services of General Interest (SGIs) to effectively utilize sustainable finance tools, thereby advancing the objectives of the European Pillar of Social Rights. 

To familiarize with the project and the requirements of the subcontract, please refer to the tenders call available here.

Contact: Cecilia Martin