12 March 2021
On 9 March, the European Commission published its digital targets for the next decade entitled the "2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade". The plan sets out a vision, targets, and roadmap for digital transformation with four cardinal objectives: a digitally skilled population and highly skilled digital professionals; secure and performant sustainable digital infrastructures; digital transformation of business; and digitalisation of public services.
This Digital Compass draws on EU initiatives such as the ‘Shaping Europe’s digital future’ Communication, which remains the overarching framework for digital policy and follows von der Leyen’s call in her State of the Union Address in September 2020 for clearly defined goals to make this Europe’s so-called Digital Decade.
Achieving a more digitalised, human-centric, and resilient economy, SGI Europe underlines that providers of services of general interest are taking Europe forward in serving and acting in the general interest and in being key players in the digital environment. Digitalising public services and services of general interest should be a priority, providing the basis for economic activity and accelerating investments in technical innovations across different sectors.
You can read more on our position on a new digital development in SGI Europe’s position paper on Digitalisation and Data Policy here.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
In a ceremony held at the Parliament’s Brussels hemicycle on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President David Sassoli and Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa signed the joint declaration on the Conference on the Future of Europe "Engaging with citizens for democracy - Building a more resilient Europe".
As agreed in the declaration, the Conference will be a “citizens-focused, bottom-up exercise for Europeans to have their say on what they expect from the European Union.” The first event in the context of the Conference will officially take place on 9 May (Europe Day). The joint declaration stipulates a “multitude of conference-events,” panels and debates across the EU, as well as “a multilingual digital platform” where citizens will be able to contribute on a wide range of topics.
The conference’s leadership will be divided between a “joint presidency” gathering the President of the 3 EU institutions (von der Leyen for the European Commission, Sassoli for the European Parliament and Charles Michel, President of the European Council) and an “executive board” with three representatives from each institution and “up to four observers”.
Social partners, as well as the representatives from the Committee of the Regions, the Economic and Social Committee and other EU bodies may also be invited as observers to the executive board where appropriate, and will be represented in the Conference Plenary as well as supporting the organisation of various events at EU, national, regional and local levels.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On 4 March, Elmar Thyen, Chair of our Energy Task Force, and Alain Taccoen, Vice-chair, met with Ms Laure Chapuis and Mr Thor-Sten Vertmann, members of the cabinet of Commissioner Simson (in charge of Energy) to discuss SGI Europe’s position on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the Renewable Energy Directive II (RED).
During this meeting, SGI Europe particularly highlighted its approach towards a more climate-efficiency centric approach for both directives. As a cross-sectorial European association, SGI Europe covers the opinion and the technical expertise from multiple sectors, such as energy, building, transport, water, and waste management. SGI Europe underlines that the revision of the EED and the RED needs to go hand in hand with the new climate ambitions of 55% GHG reduction target by 2030. At the same time, for the EU Green Deal to be successful in decarbonising the EU economy, the Commission must ensure clarity and consistency in its climate-neutrality 2050 path.
SGI Europe emphasised the importance of a just transition that respects the social, environmental, and economic dimensions, which means the right measures and tools need to be tailormade for each sector such as the energy, transport, building, water, and waste management.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 31 March, the EU social partners (SGI Europe, ETUC, BusinessEurope and SMEunited) will hold a joint seminar in the framework of the joint project on innovation, skills, provision of and access to training. The meeting will focus on the theme “Game changing technologies and innovative approaches to the identification of new skills”.
This forthcoming seminar is the second of three thematic seminars organised as part of project activities with the aim of producing a joint report and policy recommendations. The seminar aims to discuss the changing nature of work and innovative approaches to skills anticipation and forecasting, to explore the impact of technological developments and digitalisation on skills and innovation, and to analyse the approaches for updating occupational profiles and training curricula in a timely and effective way.
SGI Europe’s member, the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, will attend the upcoming seminar to present their best practices and knowledge on the topic of “The changing nature of work and the role of social partners in innovative approaches to skills anticipation and forecasting for informing training provision”.
Contact: Ștefan Enică
On 4 March 2021, Marta Branca was elected Secretary General of the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association (HOSPEEM), one of SGI Europe’s sectoral members. Ms Branca has been involved in HOSPEEM’s activities since 2008 as a member of the Board and General Assembly on behalf of ARAN, Agenzia per la Rappresentanza Negoziale delle Pubbliche Amministrazioni, leading the HOSPEEM Italian Membership. She has been HOSPEEM Vice-Secretary since 2018. Her mandate will cover the period ending in December 2021. Read more.
As stated in the European social dialogue work programme 2019-2021, and in line with the 2016 quadripartite statement on “A New Start For The Social Dialogue”, capacity-building activities remain a priority for the EU social partners. SGI Europe, BusinessEurope, SMEunited and ETUC are committed to further discussing the interplay between the European and national social dialogues, the needs and challenges of social partners organisations in changing economies and societies, including capacity building, and the involvement of social partners in the EU economic governance process. This has become even more important in light of the current COVID-19 crisis.
The EU social partners aim to gather national social partners in cluster seminars to foster discussions and a better understanding of national situations and needs, the priorities for social dialogue at EU level, and the role and contribution of social partners at different levels. The seminars also encourage learning between social partners on solutions and approaches to collective bargaining at national level.
The seminar organised on 12 March had for objective to present the latest outcomes of the EU social dialogue and discuss with national affiliates, take stock of relevant national developments in terms of collective bargaining (including in view of COVID-19), further identify the needs to achieve strong, representative, autonomous and mandated social partners’ organisations with the capacities needed to negotiate, monitor the implementation and follow-up of EU social dialogue instruments and provide space for break-out discussions between social partners for each country.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
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