15 October 2021
On 14 October, SGI Europe, together with BusinessEurope, SMEUnited and ETUC, organised the final conference of the Social Partners’ joint project on “Circular Economy and the World of Work” and published the final report of the project (available here).
As part of the joint integrated projects 2020-2021, the EU social partners have been conducting this project to study the impacts on employment, labour markets and working conditions of the transition to a circular economy. SGI Europe provided experts for three national cluster seminars during which national social partners exchanged best practices and views on this topic.
Together with other experts taking the floor during the final conference, Frank Siebern-Thomas, Head of Unit for Fair Green and Digital Transition within the European Commission’s DG Employment and Social Affairs, and Rozalina Petrova, Member of the cabinet of Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, discussed the concept of circular economy, the policy actions at EU level, as well as the contribution to the EU Green Deal. The recommendations of the social partners on the impacts of the implementation of the circular economy on social inclusion and the workforce (which are available in the final report) were also at the heart of the discussions.
Dr Davide Scaglione, Head of Wastewater Treatment at Gruppo CAP and General rapporteur of the SGI Europe Water Task Force, presented Gruppo CAP’s project to implement eco-innovative and energy-efficient solutions in the renovation of existing wastewater treatment plants, respecting the circular economy value chain by applying low-carbon techniques to recover materials.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 13 October, SGI Europe attended the Plenary Meeting of the ESF+ Committee, where several topics were discussed, including the ‘Fit for 55 package’, the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness and the ALMA (Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve) initiative.
Ms Yvon Slingenber, Director for Climate Strategy, governance, and emissions from non-trading sectors within DG CLIMA presented the ‘Fit for 55 package’, emphasising that in the context of the foreseeable changes of the overall employment sectoral composition due to the environmental transition, the ESF+ plays the key role of targeting structural investments in active labour market policies, including for non-intensive energy sectors such as automotive, electronics, construction, and others.
SGI Europe believes that the Member States and national social partners should work together to invest in relevant skills training, update curriculums and support employees’ mobility and transitions into and between jobs. Given the crucial role that the social partners play regarding labour market aspects, SGI Europe reaffirms that within the ESF+ programme the Member States and managing authorities should ensure a clearly defined role and status for social partner organisations.
In accordance with the Lisbon Declaration, signed by SGI Europe on 21 June 2021, we strongly support the new level of ambitious in the fight against homelessness in EU through the new Platform on Combating Homelessness and the ESF+ is an important lever in supporting investments in housing approaches, which is a fundamental element for fostering access to training and employment.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On 12 October 2021, SGI Europe participated in the EMCO Policy Analysis Group (PAG) meeting “Support job transitions: ways to best design the mix of active labour market policies and their governance”.
With the recovery, EU labour markets are confronted with new challenges. Consequently, providing timely and tailor-made assistance to jobseekers with coherent and well-integrated active labour market policies (ALMPs), including skill policies and enhanced public employment services, is crucial. SGI Europe recalled on this occasion the importance of involving social partners in the design of ALMPs, as they can bring in valuable expertise on the needs of jobseekers, employees and employers.
During the meeting, Katia Berti, Head of Unit for the European Semester/EMCO at the European Commission’s DG Employment, presented labour market developments resulting from the pandemic and the impacts of the green and digital transition, as well as the key policy challenges and responses to anticipate and support job transitions. During the following discussions, social partners and representatives of national governments had the opportunity to exchange best practices and share views on the best way to manage ALMPs. The key issues addressed the most effective mix of reforms and investments to support job transitions in the green and digital transitions; the challenges faced when integrating ALMPs, public employment services and training systems; how to best make use of skills intelligence; and the role of social partners in contributing to the design of well-integrated ALMPs that can support job-to-job transitions.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Wednesday, the European Commission published its Communication on Energy Prices, providing Member States with a toolbox to tackle the exceptional rise in global energy prices. It focuses on both the immediate impact of current prices’ increase, and the need to strengthen the resilience of the EU against future shocks.
With this communication, the European Commission is setting the frame for the upcoming discussions to be held with both the European Parliament and the European Council. It recalled that existing legal framework enabling the EU and its Member States to take action to address the immediate impacts, with priority to targeted measures to rapidly mitigate the price rises for vulnerable consumers and small businesses.
The communication also recalled that, according to the European Commission, “the clean energy transition is the best insurance against price shocks in the future”, calling for developing further an efficient energy system with a high share of renewable energy with other energy sources, including gas, required in times of higher demand.
SGI Europe reacted to the communication with the following commentary, suggesting to make a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of the EU Green Deal with the social partners, to further modernise our energy systems with a technology-neutral approach, and to develop a sustainable gas sector & low-carbon/renewable electricity market.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
Last week, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the revised Draft General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), under which, the aid measures meeting the conditions set in GBER, are deemed automatically compatible with the internal market without prior notification to the Commission.
This revision of the GBER is a targeted one, which means that the Commission will only align the parts of the GBER to the already revised Guidelines:
For the Members of SGI Europe, the most important sections are regional aid and environmental and energy aid. Regarding the environmental and energy aid, the main novelties are widening the scope of existing provisions on aid for the recycling and re-utilisation of waste, investment aid for clean or zero-emission vehicles, aid for recharging and refuelling infrastructures, providing higher aid intensities and increasing some of the aid thresholds.
The deadline to respond to the public consultation is 8 December 2021.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
On 1 October, the European Commission launched a feedback period to respond to a Roadmap for the revision of the State aid Guidelines for Rail transport. The revision of these sectoral Guidelines aims at fully aligning the rules to the key EU priorities, making their application easier and adapting them to the sector’s needs so it can grow and become more competitive.
The deadline to respond to the Roadmap is 29 October 2021. According to the timeline, a first draft of the updated guidelines is to be expected in late 2022.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
Together with its project partner, HOSPEEM is organising on Monday 25 October 2021 (14:00-16:30) the third webinar of a series of events as part of the multi-sectoral project with EPSU, CEMR, CESI, ETUCE, EUPAE, ETF, UITP, and ETNO on the role of social partners in preventing third-party violence and harassment at work. It will take place on Monday 25 October 2021 – 14:00-16:30 CET.
The webinar aims to understand implementing preventative risk assessment culture regarding third-party violence and harassment at work and provides good practice examples from national social partners. Speakers include representatives from EU-OSHA, SGI Europe sectoral affiliate EFEE. National social partners from the hospital and the local regional government sector will present local initiatives to prevent third-party violence. Interpretation will be provided to and from English, French, Italian and Spanish. You can register here.
Contact: Simone Mohrs, HOSPEEM Policy Officer
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