15 March 2024
On Tuesday, the European Commission published its communication “Managing climate risks - protecting people and prosperity”. It addresses the mitigation aspect of climate change, focusing on the need to manage climate risks in Europe, and gives guidance and recommendations to Member States on preparing and implementing climate policies.
SGI Europe welcomes this approach to place the focus on the need to build resilience and adapt Europe’s socio-economic infrastructure to climate change and other external shocks. The communication rightly places the issue of preparedness in the spotlight while leaving the expertise to each Member State on how to implement climate policies best. Whilst the text briefly addresses several critical infrastructures, SGI Europe deems it essential to give all sectors a dedicated roadmap, especially the water sector.
Considering the latest climate risks assessment on water scarcity published on Monday 11 March by the European Environmental Agency (EEA), SGI Europe strongly recommends taking specific measures to safeguard this irreplaceable good. Priorities must be set if there is competition for using qualitative and quantitative public drinking water.
For that purpose, SGI Europe joined 20+ other organisations on 12 March in calling for the European Commission to propose a dedicated water resilience initiative. You can find the letter here.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On Thursday, 14 March 2024, SGI Europe addressed the seminar on youth employment organised by the EU social partners, focusing on recent developments at the national and European levels.
With inputs provided by representatives from the European Commission, EU social partners and from Spain, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Italy, the discussion addressed the value of work-based learning (e.g., apprenticeship and internship) in fostering education to work transitions, the need to prove basic skills in initial education as an essential foundation for adults’ labour market participation, and the need to activate support for young people not in employment, education or training.
More specifically, SGI Europe highlighted the need to support the cooperation between different stakeholders – social partners, education providers, public employment services and social services – and ensure the stability of funding for the good practices that our members have developed in the context of the ESF+ or the RRF to tackle youth unemployment.
In a context of general labour and skills shortages across Europe, social partners highlighted the importance of guaranteeing access to high-quality education and improving youths’ basic and transversal skills to ensure their future active participation in the national labour markets.
Throughout the seminar, social and national actors also recognised the effectiveness of policy instruments being implemented and agreed on the importance of EU funding and initiatives to further improve young people's labour market integration.
Contact: Cecilia Martin
On 12 March 2024, EU ministers of economic and financial affairs gathered in Brussels for the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meeting. During the meeting, ECOFIN ministers were joined by employment and social affairs ministers (EPSCO) for a joint session to discuss the contributions of social investments and reforms to resilient economies.
Ministers discussed what they considered to be the positive effects of social reforms and investments on economic growth and fiscal sustainability. They shared examples of recent employment and social reforms in their countries that had contributed to higher growth potential.
They also reflected on how cooperation between the ECOFIN and EPSCO work streams could be further enhanced to assess better the impact of social investments and reforms on economic growth, fiscal sustainability, and social cohesion in the context of the European Semester.
As highlighted on the occasion of an informal dinner organised by the joint EPSCO-ECOFIN meeting, SGI Europe calls for ensuring that the economic governance review and the discussion on social investment are connected. Indeed, European economic governance should leave space for Member States to deploy, at a sufficient scale, the social investments we need for the future. Developing common guiding principles regarding the evaluation and monitoring of social policies and social investments through EU Member States is a solid first step.
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
On 13 March 2024, after finalising long and complex negotiations with the Council, the European Parliament adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act in its plenary session. The regulation aims to protect fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law, and environmental sustainability from high-risk AI and establish Europe as a leader in the field.
The AI Act (Artificial Intelligence Act) involves several obligations, such as safeguards on the general purpose of artificial intelligence, limits on the use of biometric identification systems (RBI) by law enforcement, bans on social scoring and AI used to manipulate or exploit user vulnerabilities, and the right of consumers to launch complaints and receive meaningful explanations. Moreover, the General-purpose artificial intelligence (AI systems that can handle many different tasks and are not limited to a single use) systems and models must meet specific transparency requirements, including compliance with EU copyright law. Finally, artificial or manipulated images, audio, or video content (deep fakes) need to be clearly labelled as such.
The regulation is still subject to the corrigendum procedure and is expected to be adopted before the end of the legislature. It will enter into force twenty days after its publication in the Official Journal and be fully applicable 24 months after it enters into force.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
EU member states provisionally agreed on new rules for platform workers during the EPSCO council of 11 March, aiming to improve working conditions and regulate the use of algorithms by digital labour platforms.
The deal came after Estonia and Greece, which had previously abstained, voted in favour of the compromise agreed with the European Parliament. The main agreed elements revolve around a legal presumption of the employment relationship, which aims to help determine the right employment status of people working for digital platforms. Already under the February provisional agreement, criteria to be used to indicate subordination of platform workers were deleted from the text, and member states were obliged instead to create a presumption of employment in their national systems so that its implementation would make it easier for workers to be considered for reclassification.
The adopted file also contains a chapter on algorithmic management in the workplace, which enshrines a complete prohibition on processing certain data sets. Regarding important decisions influenced or taken by an algorithm, such as remuneration, account suspension or dismissal, the text goes beyond what the EU’s data privacy law, the GDPR, provides for. The deal makes explicitly clear that a human being shall always take such decisions.
The directive now needs to be formally ratified in the Council and the European Parliament plenary. Countries will then have two years to integrate the piece of legislation into their own national systems.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
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