23 January 2026
On 21 January, SGI Europe’s General Secretary, Valeria Ronzitti, took part in the annual meeting of the Employers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), alongside BusinessEurope and SMEunited. This year’s exchange focused on “AI’s transformative effect on enterprises: what to expect, how to prepare”, at a time when artificial intelligence has moved to the centre of the EU’s competitiveness and simplification agenda.
In her intervention, Valeria Ronzitti stressed that for enterprises providing services of general interest, AI is no longer a future-oriented debate but an operational reality. Across energy, transport, healthcare, water, waste and civil protection, AI is already embedded in daily activities. These applications directly affect productivity, service continuity, and resilience.
SGI Europe underlined that the main risks linked to AI in the workplace do not stem from the technology itself, but from unmanaged organisational change. Evidence shows that AI often reshapes work organisation and performance management indirectly, through metrics and automated systems. In this context, social dialogue was presented as a key tool for competitiveness and risk management, helping enterprises clarify responsibilities, build trust, and accelerate effective deployment.
The discussion also highlighted the need to address regulatory complexity. While the AI Act has now been adopted, enterprises are facing overlapping obligations across the digital acquis. SGI Europe reiterated that the Digital Omnibus should deliver genuine simplification, legal clarity and proportionality, particularly for municipal and local enterprises providing essential services. Finally, SGI Europe emphasised that skills and organisational readiness remain major bottlenecks, calling for targeted training and anticipatory workforce planning.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On 23 January, SGI Europe was appointed a permanent seat as EU Social Partner for employers of public services and services of general interest, the Advisory Board (AB) for the European Fair Transition Observatory (EFTO), overseen by the European Commission's DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL).
On Friday, the AB held its first Board meeting to kick-start the work ahead for its first 2-year term. This Advisory group aims to closely monitor how the green transition in several sectors affects the labour market, individual and household welfare, and the differing costs and policy impacts across sectors, population groups, communities, and regions. The plan is to deliver a concept paper outlining thematic topics and providing technical and political recommendations for a fair transition.
For SGI Europe, core issues to address in the concept paper will be to proactively tackle all dimensions of a fair green transition whilst supporting the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the EU Green Deal. It is crucial to include a dedicated approach putting access to SGIs and essential services (as defined in the EPSR) at the heart of the transition; address a broad scope of essential services, covering all the services of Principle 20, supported by an operational definition of accessibility, affordability, availability; contribute to more effective and sustainable support mechanisms to guarantee access to all essential services, to mitigate the adverse impact of the green transition, including through European funds and the sharing of best practices and mutual learning activities.
Further updates will be presented at the SGI Europe Sustainability board meeting on 25 February.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 23 January 2026, SGI Europe took part in the European Commission’s Social Partners hearing on the Skills Portability Initiative. The hearing aimed to present the objectives and possible scope of the forthcoming initiative and to gather social partners’ feedback ahead of its inclusion in the Fair Labour Mobility Package, planned for adoption in Q3 2026.
The Skills Portability Initiative seeks to reduce administrative barriers, improve transparency and trust in qualifications, and simplify recognition procedures, including through digitalisation. Discussions focused on three main strands: improving transparency of skills and qualifications in unregulated professions, modernising recognition processes for regulated professions, and simplifying recognition and validation procedures for third-country nationals.
In its intervention, SGI Europe underlined that skills portability challenges are often more closely linked to the long-standing conceptual complexity across EU instruments than to the absence of tools. Drawing on evidence from Cedefop, the European Court of Auditors and SGI Europe’s own Labour INT project experience, SGI Europe stressed the importance of simplification, proportionality and subsidiarity as practical conditions for effective labour mobility.
For unregulated professions, SGI Europe highlighted the value of transparency tools such as the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) in supporting employer judgement, while cautioning against creating new barriers or complexities through digital tools. For regulated professions, SGI Europe welcomed efforts to streamline procedures and shorten timelines, while stressing that simplification should not affect the assessment of substantial differences, which remains a core safeguard for public interest objectives.
Regarding third-country nationals, SGI Europe emphasised the effectiveness of sequenced approaches to recognition and integration, supported by practical examples from Member States and the LABOUR-INT project. SGI Europe also noted that broader factors, such as access to affordable housing and essential services, increasingly shape labour mobility outcomes.
The hearing forms part of the Commission’s broader efforts to strengthen labour mobility within the Single Market, support fair mobility for workers, and contribute to the Union of Skills and the European Competitiveness Compass.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Monday 19 January, Commissioner Jessika Roswall presented the proposal for an Environmental Omnibus before the European Parliament Committee for Environment, Climate and Food Security, emphasising the need to simplify administrative burdens for Europe’s strategic autonomy.
The reaction of MEPs went strongly in two directions. While EPP and ECR members welcomed the push for competitiveness, left-centre MEPs were openly very critical. What was also criticised by MEPs is the Commission's intention to bypass the formal impact assessment and instead stress-test the proposed regulation, not least through secondary legislation.
The debate continued to focus on the proposal’s "stress-test" approach. Commissioner Roswall confirmed that, while the Omnibus streamlines reporting, core directives, including the Water Framework Directive (WFD), will undergo stress testing. This initiative aims to align water-quality safeguards with industrial needs, but environmental groups warn it may compromise water resilience amid increasing scarcity.
SGI Europe Sustainability Board members have already been informed. They are engaging in technical discussions with experts from the water and waste sectors to assess the operational risks posed by these legislative shifts. These sectoral insights are expected to be presented during the upcoming SGI Europe Internal Market Board (IMB) meeting on 4 February, where members of the Sustainability Board and the IMB will formalise their position on balancing simplification with essential service continuity.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On Tuesday 20 January, the European Parliament’s Plenary adopted a series of recommendations for a new legal framework to support innovative companies in the EU better. This framework, known as the 28th regime, would allow Member States to create a new corporate form or to incorporate EU-level rules into an existing one.
In its recommendations, adopted with 492 votes in favour, 144 against and 28 abstentions, the Parliament stressed the importance of having harmonised rules to ensure a level playing field in the Single Market.
The central proposal is the creation of a “Unified European Company”, a regime that could apply to non-listed limited liability companies based in any of the 27 Member States. Registration should be fully digital and completed within 48 hours, with a minimum capital requirement of only 1 euro. The Parliament calls for the Commission to set up and operate a digital multilingual portal to ensure the smooth registration and operation of these companies.
The Parliament also advocates for improved access to investment for Unified European Companies, including through alternative financing models. At the same time, it underlines the need for adequate safeguards, such as separating voting and economic rights, or limiting profit distribution schemes in terms of time or amount.
In addition, MEPs propose measures to attract and retain talent, such as employee share-ownership plans or stock options. They further call for greater cooperation among SMEs, start-ups, scale-ups, and research institutions in the EU.
These recommendations will inform the Commission’s upcoming legislative proposal for a 28th regime for innovative companies, expected in March 2026.
Contact: Raquel Carro-Andollo
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