16 June 2023
On 23 June 2023 (from 9:30-12:30), on the UN Public Services Day, SGI Europe will organise an event on "The EU Single Market at 30: What role for Services of General Interest in its future?"
On this occasion, SGI Europe will welcome high-level speakers, including Maroš Šefčovič, European Commission Vice-President for Inter-institutional relations and Foresight, and Oliver Röpke, President of the European Economic and Social Committee, as well as representatives from the European Commission's DG GROW and DG REFORM.
The event will be held at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels (in person only).
You can consult the agenda and register to attend via the following form. Please register by Monday, 19 June COB.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
On Tuesday 13 June, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Council recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions. Building upon the 2021 Social Economy Action Plan, the proposal aims to create favourable conditions for social economy organisations to thrive and grow and raise awareness of their potential, particularly in creating quality jobs, supporting innovation and social inclusion.
Concretely, the proposal for a Council recommendation puts forward concrete measures to support Europe's 2,8 million social economy entities. The proposed Council recommendation should help social economy organisations develop and scale up their activities by improving the understanding and recognition of their business models. Amongst others, it calls on Member States to develop comprehensive strategies for the social economy to promote an enabling environment for the social economy across all relevant areas by adapting policy and legal frameworks and promoting quality job creation, boosting the local economy, and strengthening social and territorial cohesion.
SGI Europe welcomes this proposal, which acknowledges that social economy entities are closely linked to services of general interest, with frequent overlaps between the two. The proposal also rightly highlights that Member States are recommended to explore which services provided by social economy entities could be defined and financed as services of general economic interest. You can read more about our comments on the proposal in our press release.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
On Wednesday 14 June 2023, SGI Europe General Secretary, Valeria Ronzitti, addressed a panel discussion on "Upskilling and reskilling for the twin transition: the role of social dialogue". This event was organised by the Global Deal and accompanied the launch of a thematic brief on the topic.
The panel discussion was moderated by Ms Glenda Quintini, Head of the unit Global Deal Support at the OECD. Also, it featured Ms Mamphokhu Khuluvhe, Director of System Monitoring and Labour Market Intelligence for the Department of Higher Education and Training (South Africa), Mr Pedro Moreno da Fonseca, Technical Specialist on Lifelong Learning, International Labour Organisation and Mr Claes-Mikael Stahl, Deputy General Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation.
It was the occasion for SGI Europe to highlight some key findings from the project "Green Skills in VET", which ran between 2020 and 2022 with the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE) and the support of the European Commission. More specifically, Mrs Ronzitti recalled the crucial importance for employers and education providers to work hand-in-hand to address upskilling and reskilling issues.
The discussion also highlighted the challenges faced by social partners and tried to identify priorities for the near future to meet those challenges. Mrs Ronzitti also emphasised that difficulties in upskilling and reskilling the workforce also stem from rules uncertainty and calls for frameworks better favouring investments in skills changes.
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
During the EPSCO Council (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council configuration) on 12 June – the last of the Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU, Ministers for employment and social affairs finalised work on a series of key proposals for SGI Europe and social dialogue.
Most significantly, ministers discussed and adopted the recommendation on strengthening social dialogue and endorsed a general approach to the Platform Workers Directive after almost 18 months of intense negotiations. This general approach now opens the door to start interinstitutional negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission.
The adoption of the Council recommendation on social dialogue is another remarkable achievement in the field of social dialogue, as it is the first legal act explicitly on social dialogue which becomes part of the EU acquis. It will support Member States in implementing Principle 8 of the European Pillar of Social Rights by providing guidance on reinforcing social dialogue and collective bargaining at the national level, better involvement of social partners in policy design, promoting the benefits of social dialogue and capacity building for social partner organisations.
Finally, under the Council's general approach on platform work, workers will be legally presumed to be employees of a digital platform if their relationship with the platform fulfils at least three of seven criteria set out in the directive (instead of 2 out of 5 criteria in the Commission's initial proposal). In cases where the legal presumption applies, it will be up to the digital platform to demonstrate that no employment relationship exists according to national law and practice. The Council will now begin negotiations with the European Parliament based on the general approach agreed upon to reach a provisional agreement under the Spanish presidency.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On 13 June, the European Commission published its long-awaited Sustainable Finance Package, which aims to enhance further sustainable finance reporting for European companies and financial institutions. It entails the final report on the Delegated Act on the remaining environmental activities of the EU Taxonomy and is accompanied by a proposal for a regulation on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating providers, a set of Usability Tools and a Guideline for Transition finance projects.
The new set of the remaining environmental activities was proposed by the European Commission based on the recommendations of the Platform for Sustainable Finance in March 2022. The European Commission included additional amendments contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, covering the manufacturing and transport sectors. Approved in principle, it will now be sent for final scrutiny to the European Parliament and the Council for a maximum period of 6 months. It is expected to be applied by January 2024.
Additionally, the Commission has proposed a regulation of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating providers, which gives information to investors and financial institutions. These new organisational principles and clear rules on preventing conflicts of interest aim to increase the integrity of the operations of ESG rating providers.
Finally, the Commission has published a series of documents to increase visibility and better use its sustainable finance documents for companies and investors. These address the usability of the EU Taxonomy and transitional finance projects.
Lastly, the EU Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), is currently subject to a four-week public feedback period that defines how companies communicate sustainability information in a standardised way to various lenders, investors and other stakeholders.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
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