23 February 2024
On Thursday 22 February 2024, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, addressed the high-level conference “Renewing Economic Integration in the EU Single Market”, co-organised by the European Movement International (EMI) and the European Round Table for Industry (ERT).
SGI Europe joined the event's second panel, “A Single Energy Market as a Vital Lever to Achieve the Green Deal”, on this occasion. Featuring also Stefano Grassi, Head of Cabinet to Kadri Simson (EU Commissioner for Energy), Ilham Kadri, CEO of Syensqo, and Alexandre Affre, Deputy Director General of BusinessEurope, the panel addressed the key challenges and opportunities faced by the Single Market, with a specific focus on the contribution of the Energy Market to the EU Green Deal. On this occasion, Valeria Ronzitti recalled the need to address the 4 Single Market freedoms to address current and future challenges, including:
This panel followed keynote addresses provided by Hadja Lahbib, Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Margrethe Vestager, European Commission Executive Vice-President, as well as a first panel on “A Digital Single Market for a Vibrant European Tech and Innovation Scene” with Georg Riekeles from the European Policy Centre and Marc Vancoppenolle, Nokia Vice President.
In conclusion, the High-level Rapporteur on the future of the Single Market, Enrico Letta, exchanged views with Pascal Lamy, former European Commissioner, Guy Verhofstadt, MEP and President of the EMI, and Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul, Deputy Head of Unit Citizens’ Dialogue at the European Commission.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 20 February 2024, SGI Europe General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti addressed the conference on "Housing Crisis in Europe - the way forward?" organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). The conference aimed to take stock of the progress made since the “Renovation Wave Strategy” launch. It highlighted the new challenges related to the affordability and availability of decent housing.
During the session "Will the Green Deal impact access to decent and affordable housing?" Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary, emphasised that to make the Renovation Wave possible and optimise the use of European resources, it will be necessary to simplify and make accessible the existing support mechanism for long-term investments and to amplify them to avoid any reduction in the supply of social and affordable housing. She also recalled that (social) housing is a service of general interest recognised at the EU level and that buildings are significant carbon emitters and energy consumers, which will play a crucial role in the Green Deal.
This EESC event should give political momentum to the discussion on the housing crisis in the EU. This topic will again be on the agenda of the upcoming ministerial conference on housing, which will be organised in Liège on 4-5 March by the Belgian presidency of the Council.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On Monday 19 February 2024, Benjamin Gallèpe, vice-chair of SGI Europe’s Internal Market Board, joined the MSMEs, Crafts and Family Business Category meeting of the European Economic and Social Committee. Representing SGI Europe M. Gallèpe addressed on this occasion the achievements of SME policy of the last five years at the EU level, as well as exchanged views on SME’s expectations from the upcoming political mandate with representatives of the EESC and of major EU trade associations (including BusinessEurope, EuroCommerce, EuroChambres and SMEunited).
On this occasion, M. Gallèpe highlighted several vital concerns local public services enterprises face. Amongst those, he particularly emphasised the urgent need to open and review the European SME Definition, the need to better take into account SGIs and public services by the next European Commission, as well as the importance of the appointment of Markus Pieper as SME Envoy to support SMEs in their interactions with the European Commission.
Linking up with SGI Europe’s strategic priorities for 2024-2029, M. Gallèpe finally put forward calls to ease the administrative burden on enterprises and SGIs and address skills and talent shortages in the context of the green and digital transition.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On 21 February 2024, the European Commission consulted the EU social partners for dedicated consultation on the upcoming Action Plan on Skills and Shortages. The purpose of the consultation was for social partners to make suggestions on possible direction and content. The Commission sought concrete commitments social partners could take in the context of the action plan.
The Commission reminded, during the hearing, the root causes behind labour shortages, including the under-representation of several groups in the labour market (such as women, young and older people, people with disabilities, and people with a migrant background), skills shortages across all sizes and sectors of the EU economy, strenuous working conditions and population ageing.
In this context, SGI Europe highlighted that skills shortages are one of the most urgent and prioritised questions for many employers in the EU, including for SGIs and public services. It calls for a holistic approach to bring solutions. SGI Europe highlighted the need for all actors – Social Partners, employment services, education providers, and central and local government – to work together to achieve good results. SGI Europe also recalled that joint social partners' activities have already delivered on this matter, with many good examples to be found at the national level.
Planned for publication on 20 March 2024, the Action Plan on Skills and Labour Shortages will be one of the first deliverables from the Val-Duchesse Tripartite Declaration adopted on 31 January 2024.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
SGI Europe and its partners UFE, USH and BDEW are leading a project named ‘Accessible Climate-Conscious Essential Services’ (A.C.C.E.S.), funded by the European Commission and implemented over two years. The project’s overall objective is to strengthen SGI Europe members’ capacity to engage in national social dialogue and contribute to national and EU policy-making through developing further research and evidence concerning the defining indicators, monitoring and evaluation of progress towards providing adequate access to essential services. Throughout the project implementation, a specific focus will be put on the water, energy, housing and transport sectors, and the implementation of the EU climate action will be integrated at the project's core to foster its acceptability for all EU citizens.
In the initial phase of the SGI Europe-led A.C.C.E.S. project, a preliminary survey was designed to capture the state of play and collect the perspectives of SGI providers in the water, energy, and housing sectors. The responses to the survey will be analysed and used to elaborate a report which will map comparatively the existing data and evaluation tools related to the access to quality essential services, focusing on availability, affordability and quality, and the needs regarding the twin transition and overall resilience of the services.
We would highly appreciate your support and contribution to the project's outcome. Therefore, we kindly ask you to complete the questionnaire and distribute it to other organisations to whom it might be relevant.
The survey questionnaires can be accessed through the following links:
Contact: Cecilia Martin
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