25 March 2022
On Wednesday 23 March 2022, Pascal Bolo, SGI Europe President, and Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary, addressed the Tripartite Social Summit (TSS), in presence of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Jean Castex, French Prime Minister. On this occasion, SGI Europe highlighted the key priorities for SGI employers and providers to support the EU response to the social and economic impact of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine. Read more.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
On 23 March, SGI Europe, CER (Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies), CEMR (Council of European Municipalities and Regions), HOSPEEM (European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association) and EFEE (European Federation of Education Employers) issued a joint declaration, highlighting the contributions of SGIs on the path towards a new EU growth and investment model for 2030. “To meet its three key policy objectives of a more sustainable, innovative and fair Europe, we believe that a consensus around a set of forward-looking reforms is essential to sustain the post-pandemic recovery and build the necessary resilience, seizing the moment to establish the EU as a geopolitical player”, highlighted the co-signatories.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
As announced in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and the 2022 Commission Work Programme, the European Commission is currently preparing a proposal for a Council recommendation on minimum income schemes to support Member States’ policies.
In this context the European Commission organised a dedicated hearing with the social partners to discuss the challenges the Recommendation intends to tackle. The main challenges identified by the Commission concern: Gaps in coverage and the take-up, Low adequacy, Weak mechanism of setting and unpredictable system of updating the benefits, Gaps in activation and labour market integration, Limited coordination with enabling social services and lack of such services, Gaps in governance systems, monitoring and evaluation. During this hearing SGI Europe addressed the key challenges of improving coordination and integrated planning between services, developing a one-stop-shop approach for users, and enhancing the capacity of and resources available to services so as to increase accessibility and quality of enabling services. Minimum income schemes recipients often face multiple barriers in returning to the labour market.
As a consequence, tailoring and targeting social and employment support as well as integrating services in a way that works for minimum income recipients with employment barriers is of high importance. Member States should involve national social partners in development, updating and implementing respective schemes to ensure that they include both a stabilising component (minimum income) and the activation measures aimed at sustainable (re)-integration to the labour market.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
In the context of the war in Ukraine, on 22 March, the European Social and Economic Partners were invited to meet with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME), to discuss the support to people fleeing the war, and the implementation of the European Partnership for Integration, which was renewed on 7 September 2020 between the European Commission and the European social and economic partners.
SGI Europe underlined that the principles of the European Partnership for Integration, such as the multistakeholder approach, take place already on the ground, with ongoing collaborations between local authorities, employers, and civil society networks which bring an enormous contribution to welcoming the refugees. In this sense, EU funds such as the Cohesion's Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) and REACT-EU must be easily accessible for local stakeholders for ensuring their sustainability.
Given that the majority of the Ukrainian refugees are women and children, SGI Europe emphasised that the specific social and employment challenges of the Eastern European Member States should be taken into account, such as the gender employment gap, the rate of children at risk of poverty, and the youth unemployment and NEETs rate.
SGI Europe mentioned that providers of essential services such as housing, healthcare and education, will operate under increased pressure which comes on top of their efforts to mitigate the social effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Within this context, maintaining a flexible financial framework which guarantees support for them on medium and long term is essential.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On 23 March 2022, the European Commission presented a Proposal for a regulation on gas storage, introducing a minimum 80% gas storage level obligation for next winter to ensure security of energy supply, rising to 90% for the following years with intermediary targets from February to October. Operators of storage sites should report the filling levels to national authorities. Member States should monitor the filling levels on a monthly basis and report to the European Commission.
To address concerns about continued high energy prices, the Commission has also adopted a Communication on security of supply and affordable energy prices setting out the options for market intervention at European and national level. Given the diversity of situations amongst Member States in terms of their energy mix, market design, and interconnection levels, as the Communication noted, there is no single easy answer to tackle high electricity prices. The Commission is laying out the pros and cons of different approaches for the further consideration of European Leaders. Whilst many of the options above address the symptoms, it is important to tackle the root causes of the current high electricity prices, with collective European action on the gas market.
The Commission is ready to create a Task Force on common gas purchases at EU level. By pooling demand, the Task Force would facilitate and strengthen the EU's international outreach to suppliers to help secure well-priced imports ahead of next winter. The Task Force would be supported by Member States’ representatives in a Steering Board. A joint negotiation team led by the Commission would hold talks with gas suppliers and would also prepare the ground for future energy partnerships with key suppliers, looking beyond LNG and gas.
The Commission will table its detailed REPowerEU plan and assess options to optimise the electricity market design in May and is ready to propose an EU energy savings plan. A guidance to Member States on how to make best use of targeted country-specific derogations under the Energy Taxation Directive is also being considered.
Contact: Ariel Carpanini
Only one month after Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, on Wednesday, 23 March 2022, the European Commission adopted a Temporary Crisis Framework (“The Framework”) to support the economy in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Framework was adopted after consultation of Member States launched on 10 March 2022.
The Framework aims at helping undertakings affected by the current crisis, whilst ensuring a level playing field. Therefore, it allows the following measures: limited amounts of aid in the form of direct grants, tax, payment advantages, repayable advances, guarantees, loans, and equity (capped by EUR 400 000 per undertaking), liquidity support in the form of guarantees and subsidised loans and aid for additional costs due to exceptionally severe increases in natural gas and electricity prices.
The Commission will also provide guidance and assistance to the Member States in the process of notification in order to ensure fast disbursements of aid.
The Framework applies retroactively as of 1 February 2022 and is valid until 31 December 2022. As it stands now, all aid must be disbursed before that date. Before the expiry, the Commission will also review all sanctions.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
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