4 October 2024
In the afternoon of Monday, 30 September, SGI Europe launched the outreach activities of its Accessible Climate-Conscious Essential Services (A.C.C.E.S.) project, with a kick-off conference in Brussels. Bringing together representatives from BDEW, UFE, and USH, along with stakeholders from the energy, housing, and water sectors at the EU level and representatives from the European Commission, the event initiated a fundamental exchange on addressing the challenges and opportunities around climate-conscious essential services.
This kick-off conference facilitated a cross-sectoral dialogue around climate change impacts and infrastructure challenges in the water, energy and housing sectors, as well as the best practices and innovative approaches to ensuring essential services' availability, affordability, and quality. As Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe Secretary General, noted, "services of general interest are important building blocks for the competitiveness of Europe and need to be treated as such". However, SGIs are currently scattered across several principles within the European Pillar of Social Rights, making it challenging to address them cohesively. SGI Europe "would like to see a more systemic approach on services of general interest from the Commission, and we hope that the data we have collected through this project will give a solid foundation for this". This is why the insights gathered from this conference will directly contribute to a final report to support the Commission in shaping future EU policies.
With essential services at the heart of daily life, SGI Europe will continue promoting a cross-sectoral dialogue and, together with its partners, will continue its efforts within the A.C.C.E.S. framework to ensure that Europe’s green transition is inclusive and fair.
Contact: Cecilia Martin
Since 2016, as part of their project activities, the EU social partners have been organising two annual meetings as part of a dedicated working group on improving the performance of the labour market and social systems. In this context, on 3 October 2024, the EU social partners discussed the topic of shaping working time and the role collective bargaining plays in this regard.
The seminar explored social partners’ perspectives on this topic. It addressed key priorities, including chosen sectors’ needs related to working time and challenges and opportunities linked to modern working time organisation. The meeting aimed to facilitate mutual learning on the policy initiatives and the concrete actions by social partners in this field, as well as social partners’ involvement in government-led or tripartite actions.
During the seminar, SGI Europe’s secretariat, Jeanette Grenfors (chair of SGI Europe’s Social Affairs Board) and John Delamere (vice-secretary general of HOSPEEM) highlighted the challenges of SGIs and public services employers when it comes to the working time directive and the organisation of working time in Europe. They highlighted the challenges in offering working time reductions in sectors with tremendous labour shortages and a rapidly ageing workforce. They further insisted on the necessity to rely on social partners' solutions at various levels to find working compromises that allow for working time flexibility while responding to the challenges employers face in terms of workforce recruitment and work organisation.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Wednesday, 2 October, the European Commission gave its first insight into how it will approach its upcoming work on public procurement. This includes how it intends to consult stakeholders.
During an event on Ecolabels in the European Parliament, Jean-Yves Muylle, Head of Unit C2 (Public Procurement) in DG GROW, outlined the approach the Commission will take to the potential revision of the Directives governing public procurement procedures. Although the recent Court of Auditors report points out many problems with the existing legislation, the Commission wants to avoid opening parts of that legislation, which may be counterproductive. This means there might be some selectivity regarding the elements of public procurement legislation that have been revised and those that have not.
An official evaluation process will be announced in the new Commission's work programme to gain as much information as possible about the problems currently faced by those working with public procurement from various perspectives. The specific dates are still to be confirmed, but the expectation is that a call for evidence and a public consultation will be published in early 2025.
SGI Europe intends to respond to both of these questionnaires. Meanwhile, the General Secretariat remains in close contact with the Commission to highlight the challenges faced by SGIs with public procurement and how these challenges may be addressed in the coming mandate.
Contact: Ruben Sansom
On Wednesday, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament (CoP) approved the calendar. It launched the process of confirmation of the Commissioners-designate, including the hearings by the different committees of the European Parliament. The CoP also agreed on which committee(s) will interview which Commissioner-designate.
Firstly, the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament (JURI) started to examine the declaration of interest of each Commissioners-designate. This assessment must determine if conflicts of interest exist concerning the candidates’ portfolios. The JURI committee will have until 18 October 2024 to examine the declarations, a pre-condition for holding the hearings.
Then, from 4-12 November, MEPs will hold the hearings of the Commissioners-designate. The European Parliament’s Conference of Committee Chairs (CCC) will meet next week to decide the exact date and timing for each hearing – they should be 3 hours long, for a potential of six hearings a day with two in the morning, two in the afternoon, and two in the evening. The division by committees was also agreed upon based on the mission letters presented in September. Some candidates will be heard by one committee if their portfolio falls in the remit of only one, while others will stand before many committees.
After the conclusion of the hearings, and if the committees vote in all Commissioners-designate, the CCC will meet on 18 November before the COP to declare the hearings closed on 22 November for a possible 25 November vote in the plenary of the whole college.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On 2 October, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and the European Commission's DG MOVE hosted an information session to introduce the 2024 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Transport calls for proposals. With €2.5 billion in funding available, the calls aim to support projects focused on developing and modernising European transport infrastructure.
During the session (which you can re-watch here), applicants received detailed guidance on the priorities of the calls, which were also allocated to public transport and better railway management. The info day also gave insights into the application and evaluation processes, including award criteria. It also offered tips and lessons learnt from previous CEF Transport calls to help them craft successful proposals.
The CEF Transport program is a key EU funding tool supporting the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) completion. SGI Europe emphasised during the meeting and its response to the public feedback the importance of maintaining sector-specific funding under the CEF to address the unique challenges in each area. As a supporter of the CEF, SGI Europe stresses the need for greater investment in railways and public transport, noting that current allocations are insufficient to meet EU climate goals. As the Expert Group on Urban Mobility (EGUM) – Public Transport and Shared Mobility Subgroup report highlights, only EUR 330 million—a mere 1% of the CEF-Transport budget—has been allocated to local public transport. SGI Europe calls for increased CEF funding to support, especially in light of the TEN-T regulation, the decarbonisation of transport, and ensuring a more sustainable and resilient infrastructure across Europe.
By strengthening the CEF and aligning with EU climate goals, Europe will be better positioned to accelerate the transition to greener, more efficient critical infrastructure systems.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
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