16 September 2022
On Wednesday 14 September 2022, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, presented her State of the Union to the plenary of the European Parliament, titled "A Union that Stands Strong Together".
In this speech, President von der Leyen took stock of the achievements of the past year and presented the priorities for the year ahead, highlighting the most pressing challenges for the EU and proposing ideas for shaping the future of the EU.
In a speech significantly shaped by the war in Ukraine and its impacts on the daily lives of the EU and its citizens, President von der Leyen outlined flagship initiatives the Commission plans to undertake in the coming year. It includes, amongst others, continuing to strongly support Ukraine, putting in place measures to weather the energy crisis, supporting the business environment, strengthening Europe's competitiveness and leading globally on climate adaptation and protecting nature. Addressing more specifically energy prices, President von der Leyen announced several initiatives to relieve citizens and enterprises immediately (see below). She also invited to entirely cut the EU's dependency on Russian fossil fuels, reform the electricity market, and further invest in renewable energy (hydrogen in particular, via a new EU Hydrogen Bank).
President von der Leyen also announced that 2023 would be the "European Year of Skills", a topic particularly at the heart of the activities of SGI Europe through the ongoing project "Green Skills in VET". Following up on the proposals of the Conference on the Future of Europe (to which SGI Europe directly contributed), President von der Leyen also confirmed the intention of the European Commission to open a Convention on debating and possibly reviewing the EU Treaties.
Finally, the long-awaited review of the EU economic governance framework has been announced for publication in mid-October. You can consult here SGI Europe's comments to the announcements made by President von der Leyen.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On 14 September 2022, during the State of the European Union address, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the Proposal for a Council regulation on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices, including three short-term emergency measures.
Considering the exceptional rise in electricity prices, the Energy Prices Toolbox should be temporarily extended by providing the possibility to extend regulated prices to SMEs and permitting regulated prices below cost. The revenue cap could finance such an extension.
An extraordinary Energy council meeting will take place on 30 September 2022, where energy ministers will discuss, amongst others, the proposed short-term emergency measures.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On Wednesday 15 September, the European Parliament adopted the directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union. The legislative process led by co-rapporteurs Agnes Jongerius (S&D, NL) and Dennis Radtke (EPP, DE) was finalised with a substantial 505 MEPs voting in favour of the directive, with 92 votes against and 44 abstentions. The new directive applies to all EU workers with an employment contract or relationship. The consolidated European strategy on minimum wages comes on time, considering the past months' unprecedented cost-of-living crisis.
The directive envisions that no Member State can be obliged to introduce a statutory minimum wage. Also, the directive will fully respect the autonomy of the social partners, the specificities of national systems and competences. It will also provide sufficient flexibility to Member States to adjust minimum wages, considering their socioeconomic conditions. While setting the level of the minimum wage remains a national competence, Member States shall guarantee that they allow for a decent life via adequacy assessment.
Additionally, the directive aims to strengthen collective bargaining coverage. Member States with less than 80% of collective bargaining coverage will have to establish an action plan to increase the rate. Thus, social dialogue and collective bargaining continue to be central to providing a decent life for Europeans.
Finally, the directive introduces provisions to ensure compliance with adequate minimum wages on the national level. Member States, in cooperation with social partners, will have to set up enforcement systems that entail monitoring, field inspections and controls conducted by labour inspectorates or other responsible bodies.
SGI Europe will closely monitor the transposition of the directive, particularly the mechanisms introduced to reinforce and support social partners in setting adequate minimum wages all over Europe.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On 8 September 2022, the European Commission published the State Aid Scoreboard 2021, showing aid expenditure made by Member States in 2020. The scoreboard is limited to aid based on Article 107(1) TFEU. Therefore, the Report does not include state aid in public service compensation (disbursed under the SGEI Package). However, the Report remains relevant for SGI providers that benefit under the Guidelines, including the Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy (EEAG), the Broadband Guidelines and aid granted under the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER).
In 2020, EU 27 Member States and the United Kingdom spent EUR 384.33 billion, corresponding to 2.43% of their 2020 GDP, on State aid for COVID-19 and other measures. A large majority of aid was schemes (78%). Total expenditure for COVID-19 measures amounts to EUR 227.97 billion. In Italy and Greece, aid to remedy the economic downturn due to COVID-19 encompassed 80% of all aid. In Sweden and Croatia, expenditures for COVID-19 measures account for less than 25% of the total. However, in nominal terms, the Member State spending the most in 2020 was Germany, with EUR 114.94 billion, representing around 30% of the total State Aid expenditure in the EU27.
Apart from COVID-19-related expenditures, the Member States have spent the most aid for policy objective of environmental protection and energy savings (EEAG) EUR 77 billion in 2020. The trend is increasing, as in 2015, the expenditure for environmental goals was EUR 48.16 billion.
These figures show that the Temporary Framework for COVID-19 has been a handy and essential tool for reviving the EU economy. As the EU is now facing another disturbance due to the increasing energy prices, we hope Temporary Crisis Framework will develop into a successful tool for remedying current difficulties. Therefore, as announced in the State of the Union speech, it should be prolonged in October.
Contact: Stefan Enica
In the State of the EU address, the President of the European Commission announced that 2023 will be the European Year of Skills. SGI Europe welcomes this announcement in the context of increased labour shortages and skills mismatches across Europe.
SGI Europe believes that the European Year of Skills is a timely opportunity to increase the visibility and number of activities related to the skills forecasts and skills intelligence, which are best gathered through partnerships between social partners, education and training providers, and public authorities.
The European Year of Skills will also connect the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan target of at least 60% of all adults participating in training annually by 2030. Those ambitious targets create a strong need to improve adult education and training systems' performance, focusing on the assessment and adaptation of national education and training systems.
Through its project 'Green Skills in VET', SGI Europe has identified the skills needs of SGI providers for the green transition, including most-in-demand occupations and best practices for collaboration between employers and VET providers. SGI Europe and its members will disseminate the research results starting at the end of 2022 and continuing in 2023.
Contact: Stefan Enica
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