23 July 2021
On 21 July, SGI Europe submitted its response to the revision of the Urban Waste-Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) public consultation and welcomed that the Commission is revising the UWWTD after thirty years of its adoption to align its rules and standards with the political objectives of the EU Green Deal, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, and the Circular Economy Action Plan.
This is a crucial step for the holistic protection of the environment and resources, the reduction of pollution and the guarantee of a sustainable and circular economy and society.
SGI Europe recommended that the new Directive should be compatible with the current EU Legal Framework in the areas of water, climate, energy, and industrial emissions policy. In particular, the revision should take into account the implications of the EU Green Deal and its Zero Pollution ambition to support reducing microplastics, minimise pharmaceutical residues and other emerging pollutants.
For this reason, SGI Europe pleads for an implementation of the precautionary and ‘polluter pays’ principle as well as the principle of control at source, to be established as guiding principles in this revision process.
Lastly, SGI Europe calls upon the Commission’s to support the waste-water industry's efforts to meet the challenges brought on by the decreasing skilled work forces by revising the UWWTD accordingly and launching initiatives that specially promote the training and securing of European skilled workers for the waste-water sector.
You can consult our position paper here.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On Monday 19 July, the sixth Executive Board of the Conference of the Future of Europe - and the first held by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council - agreed to allocate more seats in the Conference Plenary to social partners as well as to regional and local elected representatives. By accepting the joint request from social partners to increase their number of representatives in the Conference Plenary, the Executive Board will now grant four additional seats, bringing the total of seats of social partners to 12. Given our commitment to making the Conference an important milestone in the process of integration and democratisation of the European Union, SGI Europe welcomes that important decision by renewing efforts to contribute to its final success.
The Executive Board also exchanged views on the communication plan developed by the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission to continue coordinating activities and boosting public participation on the digital platform. The Board received an update on the organisation of the European Citizens' Panels, which should be at the centre of the process. Lastly, members of the Executive Board received an update on the working modalities of the Conference Plenary’s Working Groups. Whilst social partners have already sent their preferences for the allocation of their representatives across the nine thematic Working Groups, with SGI Europe focusing on Climate and Environment (with President Pascal Bolo) and Health (with General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti), further negotiations and discussions, particularly over their scope and functioning, will be necessary to finally set the stage for the next Plenary Session in October.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
On 22 July, SGI Europe submitted its first position paper on a new upcoming EU Textile Strategy that aims to ensure a better circular economy scheme and a sustainable way of the use of textiles in Europe.
As a cross-sectoral EU association representing the public services and services of general interest in the energy, water, waste/waste-water management, amongst others, our interest lies in further developing the strategy and concept of the Circular Economy as it is a key missing piece of the new European economic architecture. SGIs can play a big role in driving this new EU Textile Strategy and can support the European Commission in paving the way for other economic actors to follow.
SGI Europe believes that the new EU Textile Strategy must harmonise and be in line with the ambitious goals of the EU Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan and its related EU files to ensure a resilient, sustainable, and forward-looking development when making EU policies.
SGI Europe underlined that the waste management represents a small part of the textiles' climate and environmental impact. Hence, whether textile waste can be recycled, or not, depends on the design and production phases. For this reason, measures with the necessary environmental impact must be taken at the design and production phases of the value chain. This means, the solutions for handling textiles must follow the principle of ‘polluter pays’, and the regulations for state aid.
To establish efficient cycles in the value chain, SGI Europe has listed some main policy recommendation that will support regulations and instruments:
You can consult our position paper here.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
Early last week, the Commission published a Staff Working Document evaluating the Market Definition Notice used in EU competition law. The aim of the evaluation was to assess whether the Market Definition Notice is still fit for purpose.
Although the Notice primarily serves defining the relevant market in mergers and antitrust, it could also be used for the assessment of State aid cases when consideration of market power and therefore of the relevant market is raised.
The Notice was adopted in 1997, however, despite the rapid and constant evolution of markets, remained unchanged. One of the greatest developments in the past 23 years was the occurrence of digital economy. In 2019, the share of digital economy was estimated between 4.5% and 15.5% of global GDP (depending on the definition). In the year 2020, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the consumption of digital products even increased. Another characteristic of the digital markets is a high level of concentration of economic power. To put this into perspective, 5 out of the world’s 10 largest companies by market capitalisation are digital conglomerates (i.e., Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Facebook). The immense power of digital giants is now being tackled by the Digital Markets Act (you can read the SGI Europe position paper here).
Not surprising for a document that is 23 years old, the evaluation found out that the Notice it is not fully up to date. The Commission will, based on the outcomes of the evaluation, assess the possible update of the Notice.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
On Monday 19 July, the Commission launched the European Alliance for Industrial Data, Edge and Cloud, which will advance industrial cloud/edge computing technologies and provide the EU with capabilities to strengthen its critical digital infrastructures, products, and services in both the public and private sectors and thus strengthen the EU’s digital sovereignty.
This is particularly important since the volume of data processed at the edge is expected to increase greatly from today’s 20% to 80% by 2025. In the Alliance, the Member States committed themselves to cooperate in achieving resilient and competitive cloud infrastructure and services across Europe. To achieve this, the tasks of the Alliance will be to prepare and update horizontal and technology specific investment roadmaps on cloud and edge, providing recommendations, and advising the Commission on requirements and standards for cloud services, including for public procurement.
Although the Alliance is based on the political will of all 27 Member States, the participation is not limited to the Member States but is open to all public and private entities, provided they meet the conditions defined in the Terms of Reference. The stakeholders that meet the eligibility criteria (such as legal entity, relevant activities, legal representativeness in the EU, and compliance with other detailed criteria) can join the Alliance by signing the Declaration of the European Alliance for Industrial Data, Edge and Cloud.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
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