17 January 2025
On Thursday 16 January, SGI Europe’s General Secretary, Valeria Ronzitti, met with Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity and for Implementation and Simplification. The meeting focused on two main topics: the implementation of the new economic governance framework and the reduction of administrative burden.
Regarding the economic governance framework and the European Semester, SGI Europe highlighted two key requests of Commissioner Dombrovskis: firstly, the need to develop a better mechanism of consultation of EU-level social partners to ensure that the quality of the mandatory consultations of national social partners by their respective governments can be monitored. Secondly, the communication between DG ECOFIN and the EU social partners should be improved.
On administrative burden, the main topic of discussion was the upcoming Omnibus Simplification Package. The Package will seek to reduce bureaucratic burdens on businesses by addressing overlapping obligations in existing legislation, in particular the EU Taxonomy Regulation, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Ms. Ronzitti raised several points in relation to the Omnibus. Most importantly, she highlighted that reporting should be proportional to a company’s size and that the legislation should refrain from using the SME definition when granting companies exceptions from reporting requirements, as it excludes local public enterprises. Additionally, legislation should use standardised reporting templates to avoid duplication of reporting. The Omnibus package is scheduled for adoption by the Commission on 26 February 2025.
Contact: Ruben Sansom
Organised the project partners, SGI Europe, BDEW, UFE and USH, the second sectoral workshop of the Accessible Climate-Conscious Essential Services (A.C.C.E.S.) project will focus on the energy sector. The meeting will be hosted by UFE in the offices (Rue Réaumur 124, Paris, France) on Wednesday 29 January 2025, from 12:00 to 17:00. Online participation is possible. You can register here until 20 January 2025.
The workshop will be centred around two critical challenges facing electricity service providers in Europe that are vital to meeting societal objectives and public obligations of the sector:
Together with experts, policymakers, and stakeholders, participants will explore these challenges by looking at current climate change impacts on electricity infrastructure and service delivery, share good practices in climate adaptation strategies and explore the collection of data on energy across Europe to discuss what aspects and characteristics should be considered when developing future indicators.
Your insight and experience will help shape the standards and tools guiding the future policies of the energy sector, ensuring this service will remain sustainable in an increasingly demanding environment. The working language will be English and no interpretation will be provided.
Contact: Cecilia Martin
On Thursday 16 January 2025, SGI Europe General Secretary, Valeria Ronzitti, met with the EESC TEN Section President, Baiba Miltovica, together with Mr Georgi Stoev, TEN Section and EESC Group I (employer) member.
The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society (TEN) covers EU policies dealing with energy, transport, the development of the information society, and services of general interest. The TEN Section also has Permanent Groups on Energy, Transport and Services of general interest to monitor developments and to contribute to the debate in these policy fields at the European level.
This meeting was the occasion to share SGI Europe's work and priorities with the representatives of the EESC TEN section. But also to exchange how SGI Europe could contribute more to the work conducted under the TEN section remit. It quickly became clear that many synergies exist between the members of the TEN Section and SGI Europe.
SGI Europe's General Secretary also took the opportunity of this meeting to introduce the ins and outs of SGI Europe's current project on access to essential services, called A.C.C.E.S – which stands for Accessible Climate-Consciousness Essential Services. Focusing the monitoring and evaluation analysis on the water, energy, housing and transport sectors across Europe, this project aims to develop a set of qualitative indicators to better measure and assess the evolution towards access (availability, affordability and quality) to essential services across the EU.
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
The European Commission has published a Call for Evidence on the 2025 Single Market Strategy. It primarily focuses on three elements: barriers in the Single Market, administrative burdens faced by companies, and the possibilities and challenges of digitalisation.
Building upon SGI Europe Opinions “SGIs for a Sustainable European Competitiveness” (June 2024) and “SGIs in the Clean Industrial Deal” (December 2024), SGI Europe will respond to this call. Additionally, the General Secretariat will continue to collect examples of administrative burdens from within the membership. These will provide the Commission with an overview of the burdens faced on a daily basis by our members.
Contact: Ruben Sansom
On 14 January, the Forever Lobbying Project – a consortium of 46 journalists from 16 countries – unveiled the world’s largest collection of documents on PFAS, or "forever chemicals," now accessible through UCSF’s Chemical Industry Documents Archive and Toxic Docs. The 14,331 documents provide unprecedented insight into the production, regulation, and lobbying efforts surrounding PFAS.
The archive includes 4,796 files obtained via 184 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests (a legal mechanism that allows individuals, organisations, or journalists to access information held by public authorities or government bodies) across Europe, exposing corporate influence on regulatory processes. Another 3,393 submissions from the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) PFAS consultation reveal industry assessments and lobbying strategies. ECHA’s result came after a public consultation on the proposed restriction of PFAS under the EU's REACH regulation in 2022. They are assessing further the risks PFAS pose to human health and the environment, as well as the socio-economic implications of the proposed restrictions.
SGI Europe, representing water and wastewater enterprises, has acknowledged the damaging effects of PFAS and has called for a complete ban on their use in Europe. The urgent need for regulatory action to protect public health and the environment.
PFAS, used in products like non-stick cookware and firefighting foam as well as cosmetics, are known for their environmental persistence and health risks, including cancer and immune system effects. The project aims to improve transparency and empower communities, researchers, and policymakers to address the global PFAS crisis.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
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