13 February 2026
SGI Europe, together with the MEPs involved in the European Parliament’s intergroup on Social Economy and Services of General Interest, will organise an event of the Intergroup on Monday 23 February 2026, at the European Parliament (in Brussels).
cThis event will bring together Services of General Interest providers at the sectoral level, members of the SGI Network. A timely gathering, following up on the EU Leaders’ Retreat and preceding the next EU Council in March, meant to underline the importance of turning Freedom to Stay from a political principle into a concrete enabler of the Single Market and how Services of General interest underpin it with access to economic opportunities, labour market participation and territorial resilience.
You can register here until Tuesday 17 February. Due to a limited number of seats available in the room, we will go with a first-come, first-served principle.
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
SGI Europe participated in the Informal meeting of EU Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs (EPSCO), held on 12-13 February 2026 in Cyprus under the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The meeting brought together Ministers, the European Commission and EU cross-sectoral social partners to discuss key social policy challenges in the context of demographic change, labour shortages and rising social inequalities.
SGI Europe was represented by its Secretary General, Valeria Ronzitti, and by Professor Constantinos Phellas, Senior Vice Rector at the University of Nicosia and Chair of the Cyprus National Committee on the Well-Being of Senior Citizens.
Discussions focused on three main themes: fair employment and social justice, the fight against poverty, and person-centred long-term care as a driver of active ageing. Across these sessions, SGI Europe emphasised the need to move from policy objectives to delivery conditions on the ground.
In its interventions, SGI Europe underlined that labour shortages and skills gaps are among the most pressing constraints affecting essential services. The organisation stressed that improving access to training, strengthening workforce retention and ensuring predictable investment are key to making quality jobs, inclusive services and person-centred care a reality. SGI Europe also highlighted the importance of better coordination of existing EU instruments and stronger involvement of social partners to support effective implementation at national and local levels.
In the margins of the informal EPSCO, SGI Europe also met bilaterally with Roxana Minzatu, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, and Dara Calleary, Irish Minister for Social Protection, for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht. The Informal EPSCO provided an important opportunity for SGI Europe to bring the delivery perspective of SGI providers into discussions on the future of Europe’s social policies.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
Ahead of the Informal EU Leaders’ Retreat of 12 February dedicated to competitiveness and the future of the Single Market, SGI Europe has addressed a letter to European Council President António Costa, setting out key messages on the role of services of general interest in Europe’s economic model.
In its letter, SGI Europe underlines that Europe’s competitiveness must be strengthened by building on its own values-based market economy, rather than by lowering standards or weakening universal service capacity. Reliable and affordable essential services are not fixes to market failures, but structural factors of the EU's competitiveness. They underpin productivity, investment security, resilience and democratic trust.
SGI Europe stresses that strengthening the Single Market is essential, but must go hand in hand with cohesion and territorial balance. Competitiveness and cohesion cannot be treated as separate tracks. In this context, the organisation calls for the operationalisation of the “Freedom to Stay”, as highlighted in Enrico Letta’s report, ensuring that citizens and enterprises can thrive where they are, thanks to access to high-quality and affordable services of general interest.
The letter also identifies three key policy priorities: explicit recognition of essential infrastructures as core competitiveness and security assets; regulatory simplification delivering legal certainty and long-term investment stability; and ensuring that new Single Market instruments, including a potential 28th regime, remain fully compatible with public service obligations and long-term investment models.
SGI Europe stands ready to contribute to the follow-up of the Leaders’ discussions and to support a competitiveness agenda that reinforces resilience, cohesion and the European model.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On Monday 9 February 2026, the European Parliament adopted a set of recommendations aimed at tackling Europe’s deepening housing crisis, urging stronger coordination of EU instruments and greater support for affordable and sustainable housing supply across Member States.
In its report, Parliament underlines that rising prices, insufficient supply, territorial imbalances and speculative pressures are undermining access to decent housing for low and middle-income households. MEPs call for more effective use of EU funding, including the possibility to mobilise unspent resources, accelerate renovation efforts and simplify administrative procedures linked to housing projects. The text also highlights the need to address short-term rental distortions and to reinforce the resilience and competitiveness of the European construction ecosystem.
The adopted proposals are expected to feed into the broader EU policy framework, including the Affordable Housing Plan presented by the European Commission in December 2025. That plan set out a more strategic approach to housing delivery, linking investment, regulatory coherence and support for national and local authorities. The Parliament’s position reinforces this direction while emphasising affordability safeguards and better alignment of financial instruments.
From an SGI Europe perspective, the debate confirms the growing recognition of housing as a service of general interest that requires long-term investment, protection against excessive speculation and respect for subsidiarity. The coming months will show how Parliament’s recommendations and the Commission’s Affordable Housing Plan converge into concrete legislative and financial initiatives.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
SGI Europe has launched a call for tenders to subcontract external expertise in the framework of the EU-funded Valorising Organised Initiatives for Competitiveness and Employment (VOICE) project, implemented under the SOCPL-2025-SOC-DIALOG call.
As leader of Work Package 5, SGI Europe is seeking an external expert or team of experts to support the implementation of a structured social partner dialogue on “Knowledge and the Fifth Freedom”, as identified in the Letta Report on the Future of the Single Market.
The assignment focuses on operationalising the free movement of knowledge from a social partner perspective, with particular attention to skills development, talent mobility and retention, research and innovation ecosystems, and public-private cooperation in research and innovation. Through a series of three thematic workshops, the selected contractor will support SGI Europe in facilitating structured discussions between employers’ organisations, trade unions and other relevant stakeholders, fostering consensus-building and mutual learning at the European level. In addition, the contractor will contribute to the drafting of workshop outputs and a final joint policy brief reflecting shared social partner priorities on how social dialogue can support knowledge, skills and innovation ecosystems in the EU.
Tenders will be evaluated based on quality criteria, including expertise in EU social dialogue, employment and skills policies, research and innovation frameworks, experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue, and drafting capacity. Further details on the available budget, timeline, tender requirements, submission procedure and selection procedure are available in the full call for tenders document available here.
Contact: Cecilia Martin
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