25 October 2024
After a successful kick-off conference in September, the A.C.C.E.S. project partners, SGI Europe, BDEW, UFE and USH, will organise the first sectoral workshop dedicated to the housing sector. The workshop will be in a hybrid format, taking place in the afternoon on Thursday 28 November 2024, at the offices of USH in Paris, France.
One of the main objectives of the A.C.C.E.S. project is to define indicators for monitoring and evaluating the progress of access to essential services, taking into consideration the needs of the providers. Together with experts, policymakers, and stakeholders, this workshop will explore ways to define and measure the accessibility, affordability, and quality of these services while responding to the evolving challenges posed by climate change.
During the workshop, we will explore data collection on housing across Europe and discuss what aspects and characteristics should be considered when developing future indicators, particularly in the context of climate change and its impacts.
More details and the registration link will be sent out shortly.
Contact: Cecilia Martin
On Monday 21 October 2024, Enrico Letta presented his report “Much More Than a Market” during the European Parliament in Strasbourg plenary session. On this occasion, MEPs reacted and commented on the proposals in his report to strengthen the EU’s internal market.
As introduced by Mr Letta, this report resulted from a collective work, developed over a journey which spanned the entire EU – which included visits to 65 cities across the EU and accession countries – and the participation in over 400 meetings on the topic. The report outlined the opportunities and weaknesses of the Single Market and put forward pathways to consolidate it further as a precondition for strengthening the EU’s competitiveness and security. Amongst others, Mr Letta, in particular, highlighted the urgent need to deepen financial market integration and create a new paradigm for economic development and innovation to reinforce the EU’s competitiveness.
In this context, Mr Letta emphasised the need to develop a "freedom to stay” across the EU and that services of general interest – and answering their investment needs – will guarantee this freedom and are an essential pillar of the EU social model and social market economy.
In the following debates, MEPs expressed their views on the report, highlighting, in particular, the role of the Single Market in succeeding in the twin transition and the need to address the administrative burden and the investment needs of the EU economy.
Contact: Benoit Cassorla
On 21 October, the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) endorsed the proposed amendments to the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC) with 84 votes in favour, 2 against, and no abstentions.
The anticipated revisions of the Waste Framework Directive aim to strengthen waste management practices across the European Union. With the committee’s approval, the file is set to enter trilogue negotiations between the EU institutions. This trilogue phase is crucial for reconciling different viewpoints and ensuring that the directive is comprehensive and effective in promoting waste management and sustainability across member states.
The key aspects of the position of the European Parliament address, in particular, the food waste reduction targets (including proposals to set binding national targets to cut food waste by 20% in processing and manufacturing and 40% in retail, restaurants, and households by 2030) and the textile waste management (calling for establishing an extended producer responsibility (EPR) for textile producers to hold them accountable for collecting, sorting, and recycling). The proposal for the EPR also stipulates that Member States must establish these schemes within 18 months after the directive comes into force.
SGI Europe’s Environment Task Force will closely monitor the trilogue.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On Monday 20 October, in response to the recent floods in Central and Eastern Europe and wildfires in Portugal, the European Commission proposed amendments to crucial EU regulations to ensure swift access to EU recovery funds. Announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 19 September 2024 during her visit to Poland, the proposals focus on changes to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Cohesion Fund, and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) for 2021-2027, as well as the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for 2014-2022. These adjustments could mobilise around €18 billion to assist Poland, Romania, Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Portugal, and Slovakia.
The amendments will allow Member States to use part of their allocated Cohesion Policy funds to repair damaged infrastructure, support short-time work schemes, and deliver social and healthcare assistance. Moreover, additional measures under the ERDF and ESF+ will introduce increased pre-financing and co-financing flexibility, including 100% EU financing with no national co-financing.
Farmers and businesses affected by climate disasters will also benefit from new financing tools under the EAFRD, enabling swift emergency aid. These proposals will now move through the legislative process and, once adopted, provide Member States with the flexibility to better respond to climate-related disasters, supporting long-term resilience.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 22 October 2024, in a joint statement, SGI Europe, ETUC and SMEunited called upon the EU institutions and Member States to act to establish social partners' factual and material involvement in economic governance and the EU Semester.
The new EU fiscal rules, adopted in April 2024, aim to ensure sound and sustainable public finances while promoting sustainable and inclusive growth in all member states through reforms and investment.
The organisations express their readiness to secure their members’ involvement in preparing the medium-term fiscal structural plans, ensure sound and sustainable public finances and promote sustainable and inclusive growth in all Member States through reforms and investment. They further identify new avenues at the EU level to express the voices of workers, SGI providers and SMEs in the context of the reinforced coordination of economic, fiscal and social policies.
Such a reinforced involvement will be crucial to securing a well-functioning EU Semester that supports social partners and provides a window in which national social partners can raise their concerns over the economy's future and the performance and effectiveness of social systems. New efforts must also be deployed to ensure that the voices of social partners are heard distinctively from those of civil society organisations.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
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