21 June 2024
On 17 June, the SGI Europe General Assembly adopted the Opinion' SGIs in the Green Re-industrialisation - Paving the way towards implementing the EU Green Deal'. You can consult it here.
In this latest paper, SGI Europe recalled the importance of the EU Green Deal as a new growth strategy for Europe, but which only delivers if SGIs are enabled to perform as core engines of this transition. Sustainability means long-term planning, secure investment strategies, political will and consistency to enable a new competitive and sustainable EU Single Market.
For this, all EU funding towards the energy and climate transition must be technology-neutral and support potential and existing supply chains in the EU to avoid the delocalisation of European companies. It must also be recognised that the energy sector's investment challenge with this transition and the demands set in the Fit for 55 Package. Priorities must be set to ensure that energy becomes affordable and decarbonised first to enable other essential sectors, such as the transport, water and waste sectors, to follow their path towards decarbonisation and provide clean, safe and affordable services.
Supporting this transition, SGI Europe must be given a strong and visible place in the Clean Transition Dialogues, together with other EU social partners and the EU stakeholders, to ensure that this transition meets the demands of the world work. This engagement will be key to unlocking bottlenecks in implementing the EU Green Deal in the labour market.
Additionally to this approach, SGI Europe finds it necessary to set up a 'Fit for Green Jobs' package by the European Commission that guides enterprises, industries and their workers along in this transition challenge.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On Monday 17 June 2024, SGI Europe organised the event ‘The Green Single Market as a Lever for Sustainable Competitiveness’. The event brought together representatives from European institutions and SGIs from all around Europe. It highlighted the central role SGIs must play in developing a Green Single Market and boosting Europe’s economic competitiveness. You can consult our event recap on our website.
Contact: Ruben Sansom
This year’s high-level event of the European Alliance for Apprenticeship (EAFA), “Unleashing untapped potential—apprenticeship as a response to labour shortages,” took place in Brussels on June 17 and 18, 2024, and included the participation of the European Social Partners, companies, apprentices, and government representatives.
The event examined labour and skills shortages and the role of apprenticeships in addressing this challenge. It offered vital insights into how apprenticeships can address labour and skills shortages, bridge skills gaps, and ensure workforce sustainability. The various conference sessions looked closely at effective policy measures and collaborative strategies that can be implemented through apprenticeship programmes. These solutions can play a crucial role in overcoming labour shortages by providing young learners with the skills employers need and older workers with opportunities to re-skill and up-skill.
The European cross-industry social partners were invited to contribute to the conference's first panel. On this occasion, SGI Europe addressed more specifically the impact of the green transition on the skills needed by services of general interest enterprises and how SGI Europe promoted apprenticeships within its membership.
SGI Europe, since signing the quadripartite declaration that launched the EAFA in 2013, has continuously committed to showcasing the usefulness and the importance of apprenticeship schemes for employers of Services of general interest in Europe to address labour and skills shortages in the time of the green and digital transition. It has led several European-funded projects highlighting the relevance of apprenticeship schemes for SGI Employers, such as the project “Green Skills in VET” and “Matching Education with the Needs of the Public Services of the Future”.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Thursday 20 June 2024, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, participated in the joint seminar of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the Belgian Central Council of the Economy, and the National Labour Council of Belgium on “Transitions towards a digital, green, just and competitive Europe: the role of social and civil dialogue”.
Together with representatives from ETUC, BusinessEurope, and SMEunited, Valeria Ronzitti addressed the round table discussion on “Modalities and ambitions displayed by social and civil dialogue”.
This was the occasion for SGI Europe to acknowledge the growing recognition of the crucial role of SGIs in critical documents such as Letta’s report on the future of the Single Market, the La Hulpe Declaration, which reaffirms everyone's right and freedom to access high-quality SGIs, and the conclusions of the Competitiveness Council in May, which highlighted the importance of access to high-quality and affordable SGIs for the first time.
To deepen this recognition and improve the links between the economic, social and environmental dimensions, SGI Europe calls for SGIs to be recognised in the EU’s strategic agenda for 2024-2029 and the European Commission’s priorities for the next five years.
Finally, Ms Ronzitti called on EU social partners to develop a new approach to impetus social dialogue: analyse the challenges ahead of us, reflect through fact-finding missions, and negotiate solutions. To that aim, the current green and digital transition will remain high on the agenda, primarily through the need to develop Green Skills and implement the EU Green Deal fairly and justly (including through the continuation of the Clean Transition Dialogues).
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
On Monday, June 17, 2024, SGI Europe published and presented its Activity Report 2023. Recapping the activities of the calendar year 2023, it provides a particular focus on the activities carried out by our boards and task forces, our contribution to the Letta Report, the high-level mission to Kyiv (jointly with ETUC), and the preparation and adoption of SGI Europe Opinion “Strategic Priorities 2024-2029.” You can consult it here.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
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