28 April 2023
On 23 June 2023, SGI Europe will celebrate the UN Day of Public Services with a dedicated event on the 30 years of the Single Market. As the backbone of the EU social market economy, quality, accessible and affordable services of general interest and public services are instrumental to the EU’s global competitiveness in times of geopolitical tensions and the ongoing climate change challenges.
Our event will bring together SGI providers and EU decision-makers to reflect on the past, the present and the future of the EU Single Market through the scope of our services of general interest.
The event will take place on Friday 23 June 2023, from 9:00-13:00, and will be hosted at the European Economic and Social Committee (Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat 99/101, Brussels). More information will be circulated shortly.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
On Tuesday 25 April 2023, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, addressed the group meeting of the Employers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee. The meeting was an opportunity to address the current EU priorities and present the current challenges faced by SGIs across the EU.
During this exchange of views, SGI Europe highlighted several core messages, including the importance of SGIs in improving the competitiveness of the EU, the EU Year of Skills and the 30 years of the Single Market. Addressing the contribution and role of SGIs in the EU competitiveness, Mrs Ronzitti highlighted that SGIs are not only enablers of competitiveness but are also drivers of it. She recalled that high-quality, affordable and accessible SGIs are amongst the key competitive advantages of the EU economy and that investments in ensuring their resilience must be on top of the agenda.
Other core priorities addressed during the exchanges of views focused on the skills and labour shortages, and how the EU Year of Skills should deliver for workers and employers, as well as the need to reflect on the added value of the instruments of the Single Market as policy tools to boost the resilience and competitiveness of the EU social market economy.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On Wednesday 26 April 2023, the European Commission presented legislative proposals to implement a comprehensive reform of the EU’s economic governance rules after the economic and financial crisis. The proposals intend to amend and replace three of the six legislative proposals of the six-pack, which introduced in 2011 the set of rules for economic and fiscal surveillance.
In line with President von der Leyen’s 2022 State of the Union address, the central objective of these proposals is to strengthen public debt sustainability by reducing public debt ratios in a more realistic, gradual, and sustained manner in all Member states by integrating their fiscal, reform and investment objectives into a single medium-term plan.
The reform aims to make economic governance simpler, improve national ownership, place a greater emphasis on the medium term and strengthen enforcement, within a transparent common EU framework.
SGI Europe welcomes this EU economic governance reform proposal, moving away from the one-size-fits-all approach and creating a framework for each Member State to plan the new investments and reforms needed in Europe properly. We call on EU co-legislators to respect the timeframe commitment by implementing this reform proposal by the end of the year, before the planned deactivation of the general escape clause of the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact (SGP).
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
On 27 April, SGI Europe’s Water Task Force approved its suggestion for amendments to the revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD). With these amendments, SGI Europe calls on the Rapporteur of the UWWTD, MEP Nils Torvalds (Renew, Finland), to keep a robust Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme as proposed by the European Commission to apply the Polluter-Pays Principle. A strong EPR scheme will ease the increasingly challenging work of a wastewater treatment plant and decrease the energy demand to treat the wastewater. Additionally, SGI Europe advocates for implementing the fourth treatment stage based on the risk-based approach, with investments and upgrades only made where they are necessary and beneficial from the perspective of improving the quality of the receiving water body according to the demands of the Water Framework Directive.
Earlier this week, the European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) discussed the draft report on the UWWTD. Presenting its draft report, MEP Torvalds underlined that the pharmaceutical industry could not take full responsibility for the 4th treatment stage for medical residues. The Commission recalled that they endorse the approach highlighted in the zero-pollution action plan and the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability to progressively reduce toxic substances' use. The deadline to table amendments for MEPs is 5 May, with a vote in the ENVI Committee envisaged for 21 September.
The topic will be further discussed during the next Water TF of SGI Europe on 23 May 2023.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 24 April, the Council of the EU approved the pay transparency directive, which establishes rules and criteria aimed at closing the gender pay gap and increasing pay transparency. The European Parliament formally adopted the directive on 30 March, and the approval from the Council was the last hurdle.
The new rules seek to narrow the gender pay gap while making salaries more transparent. The pay transparency directive obliges EU companies to report and address gender pay disparities. If the gender pay gap exceeds 5%, enterprises with more than 100 employees will have to issue a pay assessment together with workers' representatives and "identify, remedy and prevent differences in pay between female and male workers" (unless it is justified based on objective, gender-neutral criteria).
Employees will also have the right to access sex-disaggregated data on salary and the objective and gender-neutral criteria defining wage and pay rises. Contractual terms restricting workers from disclosing information about pay will not be allowed. At the same time, job-seekers will be given access to information on the pay range of positions they apply for. At the same time, vacancies and job titles will have to be gender-neutral.
Under the directive, Member States are asked to set up a penalty regime, including fines. At the same time, victims of pay discrimination will have the right to compensation, with intersectional discrimination – the interplay between race, class and gender-based discrimination – being considered an aggravating factor.
The new rules will now need to be transposed into national legislation. In the context of this implementation, it will be crucial for social partners to carefully examine the measures undertaken to comply with the directive and ensure that they are fit for purpose and are manageable for enterprises.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Monday 24 April 2023, the European Commission published the 2022 Competition Policy Scoreboard, an annual EU State aid expenditure overview. The report does not cover the aid to railways (93 TFEU) and compensation for SGEIs (106 TFEU).
On the overall state aid expenditure in 2021, the report finds out that there is a trend showing a stable increase in State aid expenditure, with a massive spike in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 crisis. In 2021, the EU 27 Member States spent EUR 334.54 billion or 2.3% of their GDP on State aid. Thereof, the expenditure for Covid-19 measures represented around 57%. However, there are significant differences between the Member States: Malta, Hungary, and Germany spend around 3 - 4.6% of their national GDP, whereas Ireland spends the least (about 0.7 % of GDP). The size of the Member States’ economy also reflects the nominal expenditure: Germany spent EUR 121.21 billion (36% of overall EU state aid), followed by France with EUR 63.3 billion (19%).
In 2021, the prime objective for granting aid was remedying a severe economic disturbance (Covid-19). The second objective was environmental protection and energy savings.
The report also outlines the importance of the block exemptions: from 41% of aid exempted under the GBER 2014 to 65% in 2021. Moreover, excluding the Covid-19 measures, the percentage of exempted aid is even higher, namely 93%. SGI Europe strongly supports simplifications regarding state aid notifications as long as they can be assumed not to distort EU cross-border trade.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
HOSPEEM, the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association and sectoral federation member of SGI Europe is seeking a part-time Project and Policy Officer for its secretariat in Brussels to start as soon as possible. The Project and Policy Officer will work as an integral part of the HOSPEEM Secretariat in Brussels, providing support to the Board and the Daily Manager, as well as the Secretariat staff and HOSPEEM Members, to represent the interests of European hospital employers.
The deadline to apply is on 9 May 2023. You can find more information on the job description.
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