22 January 2021
Following up on our renaming event last 8 December, SGI Europe produced a video recapping the event. The video highlights the rationale behind the new name, as well as the contribution of Services of General Interest to the COVID-19 recovery across the EU. You can watch it here.
In the framework of the multi-stakeholders EU co-financed project Labour-INT 2, the project partners will organise the Final Dissemination Conference of the project on Thursday 4 March 2021. The event will be held online, running from 9:00 to 16:00. Invitations and registration links will be circulated in the coming weeks.
The Conference will focus on the main activities of the project which tackled the key challenges faced by migrants in integrating the labour market, as well as showcasing success-stories of integration of migrants who took part in the Pilot Actions. The objective is to disseminate the results at the European level, with an accent on institutional, international and national actors.
During the Final Dissemination Conference, SGI Europe will present the activity and role of the Expert Group on Skills and Migration (EGSM), which aimed to gather and share knowledge, and to implement concrete actions for skills assessment, informal validation of skills and skills matching for refugees’ and protection-seekers’.
The International and European Forum on Migration Research (FIERI) will present in the Final Dissemination Conference their research activity within the EGSM through the two final reports, namely “Testing the EU Skills Profile Tool for Third Country Nationals” and “Mapping ICT tools for Third Country Nationals integration”.
Contact: Ștefan Enică
Last Friday, the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, whose country is currently presiding over the European Council, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, have invited EU Heads of State or Government, EU institutions, social partners and other key stakeholders to a Social Summit in Porto in May 2021.
The Porto Social Summit will be organised around two events, with a high-level conference focused on the Action Plan for the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights on 7 May, followed by an informal meeting of Heads of State or Government on 8 May. Large parts of the Social Summit will be livestreamed.
The Social Summit will focus on how to strengthen Europe's social dimension to meet the challenges of climate change and the digital transition, in order to ensure equal opportunities for all and that no one is left behind. It is inspired by the Commission's Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights, which is due to be presented in the coming weeks. The Action Plan will recall the implementation actions carried out so far and set out the EU's further actions for turning the commitments already endorsed by EU leaders into concrete action.
SGI Europe believes that the Porto Social Summit is a great opportunity to take a further step towards a resilient, sustainable and fair European Union. SGI Europe is committed to the further implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, which can serve as a key tool to concretely identify that the provision of and access to quality public services and SGIs is essential for the well-being of EU citizens, as well as for the overall economic and social resilience of the EU.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
Last December 2020, both the European Council and the European Parliament adopted their respective positions on the proposed EU Climate Law. The proposal will pave the way to enforce the climate-neutrality objective in Europe by 2050. Whilst the Council is proposing to set the emission reduction target for 2030 to 55%, the European Parliament has voted to vow for a 60% reduction target, with binding climate-neutrality targets binding for each Member States. Both institutions are now engaged in trilogue interinstitutional negotiations aimed at reaching a common position between the 2 co-legislators.
SGI Europe emphasised within the discussions of the EU Climate Law that climate neutrality will only be truly achieved if it takes into account all climate challenges in the energy, water, transport, building and waste management sectors by effectively coordinating new and existing EU legislations. This particularly applies to the planned increasing climate targets by 2030.
In addition to the negotiations, the European Commission plans to publish on 24 February its revised Climate Adaptation Strategy, which is an important pillar in the fight against climate change. The strategy will address climate-related impacts such as drought, storms, fires and flooding that are becoming more frequent and destructive in Europe. The strategy will raise more pressure on policymakers to adopt measures and better equip countries to deal with the consequences of already rising temperatures.
As explained in SGI Europe’s Opinion on the EU Green Deal, maintaining communication systems, ensuring the production and distribution of energy and water, and maintaining buildings and transport networks, is increasingly difficult and costly with the challenges of today’s climate change effects. The resilience of infrastructure to environmental damage is already an important issue and our members are at the forefront in building up and protecting its sectors.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
This week the European Commission sent to the Member States for consultation a draft proposal to prolong until 31 December 2021, and further adjust the scope, of the State aid Temporary Framework, initially adopted on 19 March 2020 to support the economy in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In view of the persistence and evolution of the coronavirus outbreak, the Commission is assessing the need to further prolong the Temporary Framework and to continue adjusting its scope to the evolving needs of businesses, while maintaining safeguards to preserve effective competition.
The draft proposal includes the prolongation of the existing provisions of the Temporary Framework until 31 December 2021, the increase of the ceilings for limited amounts of aid granted under the Temporary Framework and for measures contributing to the fixed costs of companies that are not covered by their revenues and enabling Member States to convert also at a later stage the granted repayable instruments (including loans) of up to €800,000 per company into direct grants.
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