28 May 2021
On 25 May, SGI Europe submitted its response to the public feedback consultation on the revision of the Urban Mobility Package. SGI Europe welcomed the approach of the Commission to update such a vital piece of EU legislation in the transport sector to meet the new ambitious climate targets of the EU Green Deal and to reach the goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
SGI Europe is convinced that the addressed measures, dating back to 2013, are no longer sufficient to give cities and urban areas the necessary support they require in their decarbonisation process. SGI Europe especially wants to highlight the central role that public transportation plays in Europe’s path to a more sustainable and carbon neutral EU mobility strategy. For this reason, SGI Europe has called for a stronger and more active support to urban public transport in the next Urban Mobility Package and laid down a series of policy recommendations to improve this aspect.
You can read the full SGI Europe response to the Urban Mobility Package here.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 May, the European Council held its two-day special meeting in Brussels, where EU leaders addressed several high-level issues including the EU’s response to COVID-19 as well as the EU’s climate change strategy, amongst others.
At this meeting, the EU Council reaffirmed its conclusions of 10-11 December in 2020 on the first EU Climate Law and welcomed the reached agreement of the co-legislators back in mid-April. The Council's and European Parliament's negotiators then reached a provisional political agreement setting into law the objective of a climate-neutral EU by 2050, and a collective, net, greenhouse gas emissions reduction target (emissions after deduction of removals) of at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990.
Now the Council calls on the European Commission to swiftly put forward its legislation package together with an in-depth examination of the environmental, economic and social impact at Member State level. Once more, the EU leaders underline the importance to seize the global momentum and call on their international partners, in particular on the G20 members, to increase their ambition ahead of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow this autumn. On that note, the Council also welcomed the United States’ renewed commitment to the Paris Agreement, as this will make a substantial contribution in achieving a global climate neutrality.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 26 May 2021, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament discussed their own initiative report and the proposed amendments. The rapporteur Sylvie Brunet - (Renew) introduced the main points that came up in the amendments proposed by the EMPL Members, which were the classification of the working relationship, working conditions, collective bargaining and Algorithms and data protection. The shadow meetings will start next week, and the vote on the report will take place on 14 and 15 July.
The Shadow Rapporteur Dennis Radtke (EPP - DE) stressed the need for a European solution that offers minimal protection. Elisabetta Gualmini (S&D - IT) expressed that the S&D is very much in favour of a Directive and of keeping two categories of workers rather than creating a third category, recognising that there are real self-employed platform workers. Furthermore, she stressed the importance of including a rebuttable presumption of the employment relationship in a possible future directive whilst ensuring the use of transparent and fully understandable algorithms and guaranteeing fundamental rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining. Kim Van Sparrentak (Greens/ELA - NL) is also in favour of introducing a rebuttable presumption of the employment status in the legislation. She proposes to define data rights clearly and points out the problem of biased consumer rating that is unfavourable to women and migrants. Anna Zalewska (ECR - PL) emphasised that the definition of worker and self-employed have not been harmonised at EU level and that rules related to the remuneration are up to Member States to decide. Furthermore, she pointed out that overregulation can be harmful. Leila Chaibi (The Left - FR) pointed out the importance of the presumption of employee requalification. According to Daniela Rondinelli (NI - IT) the political moment is reached to deal with all the aspects of platform work and to ensure that equality, fairness, and collective bargaining. Finally, Max Uebe - Head of Unit of DG EMPL Employment strategy gave an overview over the timeline of the social partner consultation and stressed the importance of the social partner’s and Parliament’s contributions.
On 24 February 2021, the Commission launched a first phase consultation of social partners, which is now concluded. The purpose of the consultation is to invite the views of European trade unions and employers' organisations on the need and direction of possible EU action to improve the working conditions of people working through digital labour platforms active in the EU.
In its first stage response, SGI Europe stressed that any action in the realm of working conditions of platform workers should aim at reconciling the social policy objectives of the European Union while not hampering the innovative potential that lies in platform economy. For SGIEU and its members it is also crucial that the definition of the status of the people that perform work on digital platforms – and whether they are to be seen as employees or self-employed – remains at the national level in the hands of the Member states, national social partners or national courts. The Commission will launch the second consultation phase on 16 June 2021.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Tuesday, 25 May 2021, the ReThink Digital Summit took place. In an all-day event, several panel discussions were held concerning the developments in the digital policies, amongst others the highly relevant Digital Services and Digital Markets Act.
Regarding the Digital Markets Act, one of the questions in the panel concerned the lack of clarity of the rules and how to avoid the one fits all approach when defining the gatekeepers. You can read SGI Europe’s call for more clarity on the definition of the Gatekeepers here. However, in the panel, Olivier Guersent, the Director-General of the DG Competition, explained that with the antitrust rules as set out in Article 102 TFEU, the anticompetitive behaviour is clearly defined. As he pointed out, the Commission was successful in the enforcement. However, when it comes to digital, the competition can be hampered within a month or two. The DMA aims at tackling the slowness of the antitrust investigation by setting a list of defined auto executable rules and due diligence imposed only on some core services that are defined as gatekeepers. In his opinion, the more precise definition would create more room for circumventing them.
The appointed rapporteur for the DMA, MEP Andreas Schwab, explained that it is in the nature of the law that the gatekeepers are limited to only a few players, whereby he further suggested increasing the thresholds for defining them to EUR 10 bn turnover and EUR 100 bn of market capitalisation (the current Commission’s Proposal sets the thresholds of EUR 6.5 bn turnover and EUR 65 bn market capitalisation).
Regarding the Digital Services Act, Werner Stengg, Adviser on Digital to European Commission EVP Margrethe Vestager debriefed on the state of play of the proposal. As he pointed out the Council already had 14 meetings regarding the proposal and the general feedback was very positive and encouraging. Mr Stengg mentioned the revamped Code of practice on disinformation, which was discussed the next day in the Colleague of Commissioners. The Code of practice was for the first time agreed in 2018, amongst the stakeholders, and sets a wide range of commitments, such as transparency in political advertising and the closure of fake accounts. The new Code of the practice of 2021 will evolve towards a co-regulatory instrument as outlined in the DSA and will be seen as a powerful mitigation action before the DSA will come into force in approximately 2 years.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
On Wednesday 26 May, SGI Europe attended the Social Taxonomy Subgroup meeting for further discussing the ‘vertical dimension’ proposal, which regards the access to services for basic human needs for ‘groups and individuals in situations of vulnerability’.
The Subgroup expressed its view with reference to the danger of including all investments under a Social Taxonomy, which implies that “normal” investments in these areas would continue with the same amount as they would without a social taxonomy, without redirecting new capital flows towards social objectives. Conversely, the Subgroup acknowledged the danger of setting the bar too high for these activities, which would lead their number to be negligibly small.
SGI Europe indicated the need for a broader perspective regarding the strategic sectors selected to correspond to the basic human needs (education, healthcare, housing, water and food). SGI Europe specified the need to include the efforts that go beyond the legal obligations and address the key sustainability challenges of the sectors corresponding to the basic human needs.
SGI Europe underlined that the substantial contributions in these strategic sectors should not be linked exclusively to ‘groups and individuals in situations of vulnerability’, as this could limit the improvement of living conditions for large parts of society that do not have access to essential quality services, but could not be defined as vulnerable either.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On 21 May, the Eurogroup gathered in Lisbon to discuss macroeconomic and fiscal developments in the euro area and touched upon a series of other priorities, amongst which, the functioning of adjustment mechanisms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting came amid an improving economic outlook as projected by the latest European Commission’s Spring 2021 Forecast published on 12 May, with clear signs of recovery in the European economy.
In his statement, the Eurogroup’s President Paschal Donohoe underscored the importance of ensuring the sustainability of the recovery by making it inclusive and therefore limit the risks of long-term scarring.
On the issue of continued budgetary support both at the national and EU level in the context of the recovery, the Minister for Finance of Ireland said that “there is still some way to go. Our policies will need to remain agile given the uncertainty associated with the pandemic and its variants”.
In line with the Eurogroup agreement in November on the reform of the European Stability Mechanism and the early introduction of a common backstop to the Single Resolution Fund, Donohoe also anticipated that work will continue on pursuing the objectives of deepening the Economic and Monetary Union and completing the Banking Union.
“Strengthening the euro area economy is essential for the recovery and the return to a sustainable growth path” said the Eurogroup President.
During the meeting, the Ministers of finance of the euro area also approved the Eurogroup work programme for the second half of 2021, exchanged views with the chair of the ECON committee of the European Parliament, Ms Irene Tinagli, on the macroeconomic and fiscal situation in the euro area.
Moreover, on the occasion of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) on May 21-22, the Finance and Economic Ministers of the EU announced a high-level conference in Lisbon on June 28 – the Recovery Summit – which will end the Portuguese Presidency and will host a refection amongst European leaders on the future of European governance.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
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