Newsflash - 26 January 2024

SGI Europe Policy Kit for the Belgian Presidency of the EU

SGI Europe has just published its Policy Kit, prepared in light of the programme of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. It highlights SGI Europe’s ongoing priorities and how, together with its members, SGI Europe intends to contribute to the success of the Belgian Presidency in the second semester of 2023. The Policy Kit is available here.

Contact: Maxime Staelens

Commission puts forward a proposal to reinforce the consultative power of European Works Councils

The Commission proposed on Wednesday 24 January to revise the European Works Councils (EWCs) Directive to further improve social dialogue in the EU. EWCs are information and consultation bodies that ensure that employees are involved in decisions related to transnational issues. They concern companies with more than 1,000 employees operating in at least two EU or European Economic Area (EEA) countries.

The European Commission intends, with the proposed revision, to strengthen the role of EWCs by facilitating their creation, fostering more meaningful information and consultation, and ensuring they have the necessary capacity to carry out their work. It also aims to strengthen the gender balance of EWCs.

The Commission's main proposed changes include:

• Putting an end to the exemptions from the current Directive, enabling 5,4 million workers in 320 multinational companies with pre-existing agreements to request the establishment of an EWC;
• Clarifying the definition of transnational matters;
• Reinforcing the consultation of workers in multinational companies on issues concerning them;
• Making sure that EWCs have the necessary capacity to do their work;
• Strengthening gender balance.

Member States must notify the Commission of how EWCs can bring judicial and, where applicable, administrative proceedings. Member States are also obliged to put in place effective, dissuasive and proportionate sanctions to enforce the Directive.

Contact: Guillaume Afellat

SGI Europe agrees its position on the UWWTD trilogue, calling for a resilient Polluter Pays Principle

On 22 January, the expert group on urban wastewater treatment (UWWTD) finalised SGI Europe’s recommendation on the ongoing trilogue on the UWWTD. To this end, SGI Europe has prioritised three main policy areas: Article 9 on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Article 11 on Energy Neutrality and Article 6 on cold climate areas.

SGI Europe fully supports the introduction of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as a key instrument of the new directive. EPR, as a financing measure for quaternary treatment, represents a milestone in financing wastewater treatment according to the polluter-pays principle. As suggested by the Council, it is important to clearly define deadlines for implementation in order to make sure that the instrument works in harmony with the requirements for quaternary treatment. Moreover, the suggestions by Parliament concerning further sectors or products to be added to the scope will be beneficial to reflect potential changes in the source of micropollutants in the future.

Furthermore, SGI Europe supports the coherent approach by the European Commission to reach the overall climate ambition and to set the EU on a sustainable path to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. SGI Europe underlines the need to reduce the energy footprint of WWTP and support the Commission’s ambitions to use its resources in addition to increased use of renewables. It will be important to stress that the definition of energy neutrality and its deadlines become more flexible according to local conditions. Hence, energy neutrality of the water sector should be possible to be achieved by exploiting all renewable energy potentials.

Regarding Article 6 on Cold Climate areas, SGI Europe proposes merging the new EP subparagraph in paragraph 1 with the new text in paragraph 3 of the Council. This will cover cold climate areas (regardless of whether they are in high mountain areas or not, as altitude itself appears to be an arbitrary condition) and discharges into deep water from the outermost regions. Further, an average annual water temperature of the inlet below 6◦C hardly occurs. There is a need for an appropriate cold climate threshold. Thus, we are calling for a change from 6C to 8C.

Contact: Henriette Gleau

Exchanges of view with by MEPs of the Committee for Employment and Pierre-Yves Dermagne, Belgian Vice-Prime Minister, on the Belgian Presidency of the Council

On 23 January, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament (EMPL) welcomed Belgian Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy and Employment, Pierre-Yves Dermagne, to discuss the forthcoming priorities of the Belgian presidency of the Council.

Vice-Prime Minister Dermagne referred to the important work on the future of the EU Single Market, which is being made by the former Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, through the high-level report on the request of the European Commission and the Council. Mr Dermagne also put forward the European Pillar of Social Rights as the leading theme of the Presidency, which was discussed at the latest informal EPSCO meeting in Namur.

A keystone event on this issue will be the “La Hulpe Summit” of 15-16 April 2024, where the Belgian presidency is expected to put forward calls to support citizens and workers in the green and digital transitions. Finally, the jumbo meeting of the ECOFIN (Economic and Financial Affairs Council) and  EPSCO (Employment, social, health and consumer affairs policy) ministers that will be held for the first time on 12 March, is another key moment of the Belgian Presidency. SGI Europe welcomes this joint meeting as a first step to make social and fiscal policies more coherent.

Contact: Benoît Cassorla