14 February 2025
On Monday 10 February 2025, Pascal Bolo, SGI Europe President, and Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary, met with Antonio Costa, President of the European Council. This meeting was the occasion to introduce SGI Europe and its priorities for 2024-2029 to the new President of the European Council and share views on the topics on the agenda of the upcoming European Council in March 2025.
SGI Europe delegation first addressed the subject of European competitiveness, particularly from the perspective of energy costs, simplification and administrative burden reduction, as solutions to boost the future of the EU competitiveness. This was an opportunity to discuss, in particular, the crucial role of SGIs in fostering the competitiveness of the EU and SGI Europe's contribution to the European Commission's Omnibus packages. SGI Europe was able to introduce its proposals for simplification, particularly with regard to the SME definition.
The discussions continued on the issue of the next Multiannual Financial Framework, which will also be addressed at the next European Council in March 2025. SGI Europe highlighted the need for greater involvement of EU social partners in shaping the strategic long-term priorities of the EU.
Finally, the meeting touched upon the next Tripartite Social Summit (TSS), which will take place on 19 March 2025, including how to make the TSS an even more contributory meeting for the work of the Council and the Commission.
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
On Tuesday 11 February, SGI Europe attended the Commission’s hearing of the Social Partners on the upcoming Single Market Strategy. The hearing was organised as part of the Commission’s consultation on the strategy, and included social partners from both the employer and the union sides. SGI Europe was represented by the General Secretariat and several members from the Internal Market Board and the Social Affairs Board.
SGI Europe argued on this occasion that the Single Market Strategy should ensure that the Single Market develops in a manner that simplifies things for all: private companies, public companies and public authorities. The value of all these players must be recognised in the Single Market policy to use it to its full potential. Additionally, the Strategy should ensure that secondary products – recycled goods and materials – can enter the market and compete with primary products. Only in that way can the Single Market encompass a Circular Single Market.
The Commission plans to adopt the strategy in the second quarter of 2025. SGI Europe will continue to be involved in providing input to the strategy.
Contact: Ruben Sansom
On Wednesday 12 February 2025, the European Commission published its Work Programme 2025, titled “Moving Forward Together: A Bolder, Simpler and Faster Union”.
Building upon the Political Guidelines, the mission letters and the recently-published Competitiveness Compass, the 2025 Work Programme outlines the upcoming initiatives to be put forward by the European Commission in the next 12 months. It also reflects the need for more opportunities, innovation, and growth for our citizens and companies, aiming for a more secure and prosperous EU. The 2025 Commission Work Programme is specifically putting forward the following key deliverables:
According to its Work Programme, the European Commission plans to put forward 45 new initiatives, proceed to 37 evaluations and fitness checks, and propose withdrawing 37 pieces of legislation. The Commission also presents the 123 proposals currently in negotiations amongst the co-legislators.
Today’s publication was also completed by two key communications, highlighting how the European Commission will approach the preparation of the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (available here) and its approach on Implementation and Simplification (available here).
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On 4 February, the European Commission published its latest reports on the state of water in the EU. The reports cover the implementation of key water directives, including the Water Framework Directive, the Floods Directive, and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, revealing both progress and gaps in Europe’s water management.
In this context, SGI Europe urges the European Commission and Member States for a coherent and timely implementation of the revised Water Framework and its daughter directives. With the planned publication of the Commission's Water Resilience Strategy (WRS), SGI Europe is calling to strengthen this call by making the WRS the cornerstone of sustainable water management across the EU to respect existing EU water legislations and frameworks in place.
The reports show that despite significant efforts, such as improved monitoring and increased funding, the reports highlight critical challenges that remain. Only 39.5% of surface water bodies in the EU have achieved good ecological status, and water scarcity is an escalating concern. The ongoing contamination by toxic pollutants, such as mercury, underscores the need for enhanced compliance with existing EU water laws, particularly in controlling nutrient pollution from agriculture and managing wastewater discharge.
SGI Europe strongly urges that the upcoming WRS focus on the coherent implementation of existing EU water legislation. It is essential that Member States adhere strictly to pollution limits, ensure adequate funding, and adopt measures to tackle persistent issues such as chemical pollution and drought. Additionally, promoting water reuse, improving efficiency, and utilising nature-based solutions will mitigate water scarcity and improve overall resilience.
The WRS must set a clear path forward, building on the insights from these reports, to ensure sustainable water management across Europe. SGI Europe emphasises that a unified approach following the EU legislation is necessary to overcome the pressing water challenges that threaten the environment, human health, and the economy across the EU.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
The European cross-sectoral social partners have highlighted the need for action to ensure that the EU possesses the necessary skills to improve its competitiveness in the face of the challenges posed by the green, digital demographic transitions.
To this end, ETUC, BusinessEurope, SGI Europe and SMEunited are working together on the integrated project "Improving skills matching in Europe”. This project will take stock of the current state of skills matching in Europe, looking at the relationship between skills development, quality of jobs and competitiveness of the EU’s companies, regions and countries and the role of social partners. Ultimately, the project aims to reflect on how improved skills matching can address labour and skills shortages and feed into the Commission's initiative on the Union of Skills.
A Kick-off conference for the project is being organised on the 6 March. Here, participants will share their experiences of what works well in practice in diagnosing skill needs and then implementing actions to ensure those skill needs are met.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
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