18 June 2021
In the margins of the statutory meetings, SGI Europe also published its activity report 2020, with a particular focus on the role played by services of general interest in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its change of name and the activities on the EU priorities for 2019-2024. You can read it here.
On Thursday 17 June, the General Assembly of SGI Europe unanimously re-appointed Valeria Ronzitti as General Secretary, for a 5-year mandate. General Secretary of SGI Europe since 2012, Ms Ronzitti’s renewed mandate will run until 2026. Read more.
The European Commission launched on 15 June the second-phase consultation of European social partners, in accordance with Article 154(3) TFEU, on working conditions for platform work. The goal of the second-phase consultation is to discuss the possible content of, and relevant EU instruments for, a future Commission proposal.
This new step from the European Commission follows the first-phase consultation of European social partners, initiated on 24 February 2021, for which the EU social partners did not indicate willingness to enter negotiations at this stage of the consultation process. Having considered the views expressed in that first-phase consultation, the Commission concluded that there is a need for EU action to address these issues and proceeded with the second stage consultation.
With this initiative, the European Commission announces its intention to ensure that people working through platforms have decent working conditions, and to create favourable conditions for sustainable growth of digital labour platforms in the EU. The consultation also asks social partners whether they wish to enter into negotiations as provided for by Article 154(4) TFEU.
The deadline for this EU social partners to respond to this consultation is now set for 15 September. SGI Europe will respond and read with great interest the new analytical documents produced by the European Commission for this purpose.
In its response to the first stage, SGI Europe expressed that it is crucial that the definition of the status of the people that perform work on digital platforms –and whether they are to be seen as employees or self-employed – remains at the national level in the hands of Member States, national social partners or national courts. SGI Europe also considers that the challenges related to Platform economy are complex and diverse in nature, and any action in this realm should aim at reconciling the social policy objectives of the European Union whilst not hampering the innovative potential that lies in platform economy.
On 18 June, SGI Europe submitted its response to the public consultation on the revision of the EU Gas Market rules.
SGI Europe called upon the European Commission to take an all-inclusive approach, in which all sectors work closely together in order to reach the climate neutrality by 2050. Here, SGI Europe explained that it will be key to develop both a sustainable gas and a low-carbon and renewable electricity market to reach this goal. A further electrification of the system, especially when it comes to individual mobility (cars) and heating and cooling is important and beneficial but will not be enough to meet the emission reduction targets, especially not in heavy-duty-transportation and in some industrial processes. Moreover, for heating and cooling, electricity will not be sufficient either, particularly in urban areas where district heating and cooling systems play an important role.
As a general principle, SGI Europe supports that fact that the decarbonisation process in the energy sector must be cost-efficient for all sustainable technology types. Therefore, sector integration and sector coupling must play a greater role in European policies. It means that stronger connections must be made between the electricity sector, and other sectors such as heating, transport, industry and gas. For the latter, innovative technologies such as Power-to-Gas (P2G) will link the sectors together, and making better use of decarbonised and renewable hydrogen will be playing a role in the future too. In this respect, the existing gas distribution infrastructure (DSOs) will likely gain bigger responsibilities, especially in reaching the goals in a cost-efficient way.
You can consult SGI Europe's position here.
Last week, the Commission launched a public consultation on the revised Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy 2014-2020 (“EEAG”), now called Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection, and energy 2022 (“CEEAG”). You can access it here.
Generally, EEAG aim at helping Member States meet their EU energy and climate targets and were revised as a result of findings of DG Competition’s Fitness Check. The revision introduces a broader scope of the EEAG to also cover areas such as clean mobility, energy efficiency in buildings, circularity and biodiversity and all technologies that can deliver to the Green Deal, including support for renewable energy. Furthermore, the revision is increasing flexibility and introducing safeguards by imposing obligations to the Member States to consult with stakeholders on the main features of the aid scheme that is about to be granted.
The EEAG are of high relevance for us, since according to the State Aid Scoreboard note 2020, about 51% of total spending on State Aid (69.1 billion EUR), excluding aid to agriculture, fisheries and railways, was attributed to State Aid to environmental and energy savings. For Illustration, Germany, Denmark and Malta are the Member States spending the most on environmental protection and energy savings measures, namely 1.12%, 0.91% and 0.9% of national GDP respectively. Therefore, SGI Europe will respond to this highly relevant public consultation, which is open until 2 August 2021.
On Wednesday 16 June, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen kicked off a tour of the first Member States which received the approval of their respective recovery plans.
Travelling to Portugal and Spain first, President von der Leyen officially approved the two countries’ plans under which they will receive €16.6 billion (€13.9 billion in grants and €2.7 billion in loans) and €69.5 billion in grants only. Denmark and Greece also received the green light on Thursday 17 June. Whilst Greece will receive €30.5 billion (€17.8 billion in grants and €12.7 billion in loans), Denmark will get €1.5 billion in grants. Finally, on Friday 18, President von der Leyen was present in Luxemburg to approve the National Recovery and Resilience. Luxemburg will receive €93 million in grants.
In addition to the approvals of national recovery plan, the European Commission also made proposals for the Council to agree on the disbursement of funds. Economic ministers will meet on 13 July to that purpose, after which the first formal payments (of 13% of the total sum) will be disbursed likely by the end of July.
Moreover, and conditional to financing Europe's recovery, the EC conducted on 15 June its first funding operation for the Next Generation EU programme (NGEU) by raising €20 billion via a ten-year bond due on 4 July 2031. The EU will issue around €800 billion over the next six years, with about €100 billion this year alone. Two additional issuances are planned before the August summer break.
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