28 January 2022
On Friday 21 and Saturday 22 January, President Pascal Bolo and General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti represented SGI Europe at the plenary session of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) in Strasbourg (France). This third session of the Conference Plenary took stock of the 51 recommendations from the European Citizens' Panel on “Climate change, environment / Health”.
Taking the floor during the Working Group on “Climate change and Environment”, SGI Europe President Pascal Bolo welcomed the prominent place given to providers of services of general interest as essential and indispensable players in the climate transition. He particularly emphasised the support of SGI Europe to the Panel's recommendations on the need to strengthen investments, increase research on energies and to reduce emissions, as well as encourage and promote renewable energies in our energy mixes on the long-term. Mr Bolo also recalled the importance of public transport as a solution to achieve the EU climate ambitions, calling for putting in place incentive policies for public transport.
Taking the floor during the plenary session, General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti recalled the significant investment needs for SGI providers to deliver on the EU climate pledges. She also put a specific focus on the recommendations for healthcare, recalling that the pandemic only highlighted pre-existing vulnerabilities, such as the lack of investment in healthcare infrastructures and staff. She called for creating synergies with other Working Groups and Citizens’ Panels, such as the Working Group on "A stronger economy, social justice and jobs".
The Plenary will continue to debate the recommendations from the Citizens' Panels, and the input gathered from the Multilingual Digital Platform. Based on consensus, it will then put forward its proposals to the Executive Board who will draw up a report in full collaboration and full transparency with the Plenary to feed the conclusion of the CoFoE.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
On 24 January, the Platform on Sustainable Finance (PSF) published its response to the draft complementary Delegated Act (CDA) of the European Commission to the EU taxonomy regulation. The final report of the PSF, to which SGI Europe contributed as a member of the expert group, is available here.
In its response, the PSF highlights that the activities covered by the CDA are not in line with the taxonomy regulation: the proposed Technical Screening Criteria (TSCs) differ in fundamental ways to the TSCs in the Climate Delegated Act already in force and are not consistent with the provisions of the regulation. According to the Platform, the activities of the CDA could not be considered sustainable within the meaning of the Taxonomy Regulation.
In our position paper adopted on 12 January (available here), SGI Europe called for nuclear and gaseous activities to be included in the scope of the EU taxonomy. On gaseous activities, the proposed greenhouse gas emissions threshold value of 100g CO2e/kWh is not feasible in practice. Given its low carbon footprint and the increase of energy demand (especially in electricity), nuclear activities will need investments to meet the increasing demand. SGI Europe argues that nuclear power generation should be considered as a green activity, due to its contribution to climate change mitigation.
Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services, and the Capital Markets Union, announced that the European Commission will present the proposal on 2 February. The European Council (by qualified majority) and the European Parliament (by simple majority) will then have six months to accept or reject the CDA as presented.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 25 January, the European Parliament’s committee for Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) held an exchange of views with Elisabeth Borne, French Minister of Labour, Employment and Economic Inclusion, regarding the French Council Presidency's programme on employment and social affairs.
The discussion touched upon minimum wages, platform workers, pay transparency, occupational cancer, social security coordination, cross-border workers, climate social funds, women on boards, Roma people, child and youth guarantees, disabled people and inclusive labour markets. Minister Elisabeth Borne restated that the conclusion on minimum wages in the EU is a priority for the French Presidency of the EU, whilst bringing forward the pay transparency proposal with the Council awaiting the European Parliament’s position. The coordination of the social security systems’ file will be reassessed in the Council. The Council will also work on proposals for new working rights for platform workers. Minister Borne also confirmed that a high-level conference on the prevention of occupational cancer will take place on 7-8 March in Paris.
She finally referred to the ministerial meeting (informal EPSCO) of 15 February, during which tools for a fair labour market transition (including the skills agenda and social dialogue) will be discussed. SGI Europe will be represented on this occasion, with a focus on the needs for investing in skills matching future needs and facilitating professional transitions.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
In the framework of the project ‘Green Skills in VET’, implemented by SGI Europe and the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE), and co-funded by the European Commission, the second sectoral workshop dedicated to the energy sector will take place online on the 1 February.
This workshop will represent a platform of dialogue and learning which will stimulate the exchange of best practices and seek to overcome the barriers that challenge the implementation of green-oriented training programmes in the energy sector and across the targeted Member States.
During the workshop, the research team of the project will present preliminary outcomes specific to the energy sector needs and stimulate a discussion regarding the common solutions which could be designed by SGIs and VET providers, based on national based practices and successful international partnerships.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On Thursday 27 January, the results of the study for the Commission’s review of the Broadband Cost Reduction Directive (BCRD) were presented during a dedicated online workshop.
In the opening session, representatives from the European Commission’s DG Connect emphasised the importance of further facilitating deployment of fibre and of 5G in all populated areas, reducing the administrative burden and improving access to such information.
The contractor of the study, WIK-consult, presented the outcomes of the study. The overall conclusion of the study is that BCRD is now ripe for review, in particular in the context of the recent market developments (increase in demand from 30% to 60% during COVID-19), 5G deployment, VHCN (Very High Capacity Networks) deployment by utilities and municipalities, gigabit society targets, … The study provides an overview of the application of the BCRD, an independent evaluation of the functioning of the Directive and possible options for impact assessment ahead of the revision.
The study revealed that most Member States implemented only minimum requirements imposed by BCRD, which already sets low standards (e.g., for high-speed broadband 30 Mbit/s). The conductors of the study suggest that a revision of the BCRD would clarify the civil work coordination, so that it is not applicable to the ownership but to publicly financed assets, the extension of the concept of physical infrastructure, stronger rules regarding grant permits.
SGI Europe will closely follow the next steps of the revision and impact assessment.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
Join us, stay informed
Subscribe to have all the latest news and developments delivered straight to your inbox.