29 April 2022
Next week, from 4-6 May 2022, SGI Europe associated member 'Rubes Triva Foundation', in collaboration with the University of Urbino, is organising the International Festival of Health and Safety at Work.
The theme chosen for the festival's first edition is 'participation as the new challenge of prevention'. The objective will be to create a platform to gather expertise and experiences, studies and reflections involving relevant stakeholders. The festival will focus on a wide array of issues related to health and safety in the workplace, bringing together high-level speakers from Italian and EU institutions, academics, social partners and experts.
In line with the festival's goal of providing an EU and international perspective, SGI Europe will organise a dedicated panel on the Conference for the Future of Europe on 4 May, from 10:00-13:00. Together with keynote speaker Maroš Šefčovič (European Commission's Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight), the panel will feature:
You can find the final agenda and register via the festival's website, select the item "to participate" from the menu and choose your sessions of interest.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
On 27 April, SGI Europe finalised its position paper on the REPowerEU Initiative, which is available here. During the extraordinary meeting of the Energy TF on 27 April, and following its finalisation, the paper was presented and discussed with representatives of the European Commission involved in preparing the REPowerEU plan.
Announced by the REPowerEU communication on 8 March, the REPowerEU plan – expected to be published on 18 May – will aim to establish short-term emergency measures to mitigate high energy prices and prepare sufficient gas storage levels for next winter. From the longer-term perspective, this initiative should support reducing the EU's energy dependencies by diversifying gas supply, enabling energy efficiency and speeding up the roll-out of renewable energy projects.
In its position paper, SGI Europe welcomes the ambition on the security of supply, energy efficiency, the roll-out of renewable energy sources and more decarbonisation by electrification and hydrogen. The paper presents SGI providers' priorities in the short, medium and long-term, including reducing demand, supporting joint procurement of EU gas purchases and giving European citizens the benefits of energy at stable costs. In the medium-term, SGI Europe encourages the European Commission to reinforce the security of supply further while ensuring the objectives of sustainability and affordability by optimising the use of available resources within the EU. Finally, SGI Europe emphasises that the EU Green Deal must remain the only way forward in the long-term, emphasising increasing ambition while allowing for flexibility and technology-neutrality.
Contact: Ariel Carpanini
On the 27 April, the European Commission published its communication on Skills and Talent within the Pact on Migration and Asylum, aiming to improve the legal framework for people seeking work in the EU, and address EU skills needs in the long term.
SGI Europe welcomes the Skills and Talent package, an essential step in shaping a common EU migration and asylum policy. With the Talent Pool and the Talent Partnership, the European Commission is finally laying the ground for a standard vocational and educational training dimension to our migration policy for all skills levels, including the care and other essential workers. You can find our key comments on SGI Europe's press release here.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On 27 April, SGI Europe participated in the macroeconomic dialogue at technical level, together with EU social partners, the European Commission, the economic policy committee of the ECOFIN Council and the European Central Bank. The discussions centred around the current economic conditions and the impact of the war in Ukraine on the European labour market.
The discussion on the current economic conditions was focused on the exceptional situation, with two crises of historic dimension taking place: the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The meeting emphasised the high uncertainty over commodities prices and their impact on economic activities, including on future GDP growth and inflation. The meeting also stressed that global supply chains are in total transformation and have unclear effects, whilst the possible emergence of new COVID-19 variants remains troubling.
Regarding the impact of the war in Ukraine on the EU labour market, the discussion centred on the integration of the refugees. The European Commission presented on this occasion the new Skills and Talent Package, published on 27 April. The ensuing discussion focused on the differences between the present situation and the 2015 refugee crisis, including the lessons learnt for successful integration. To that aim, a specific focus was put on the access to safe and stable living conditions, including housing, means of subsistence and basic needs such as healthcare (including mental healthcare) and education/childcare. Participants also reemphasised that access to education and training will be a determining factor for integration.
Based on those exchanges, the macroeconomic dialogue at political level will take place on 23 May at a higher level of representation, with the leaders of the EU social partners, ECOFIN Ministers, European Central Bank and the European Commission.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
In the middle of the night on 22-23 April 2022, negotiators from the EU institutions (European Parliament, Council and European Commission) reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act, the sister legislation to the DMA, which was agreed upon on 24 March.
Following the main principle of ensuring that what is illegal offline must also be illegal online, the DSA sets standards for previously relatively unregulated digital platforms. SGI Europe responded to the public consultation ahead of the EC's proposal (you can consult our position here), engaging with MEPs in the lead (from the committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection) in associated committees (Industry, Research and Energy, Legal Affairs, Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs) throughout the whole legislative process.
Amongst others, one of SGI Europe's mean messages was to reduce the administrative burden for the LPSEs by expanding the definition of SMEs to publicly owned smaller enterprises. In addition, the negotiated text sets that micro and small enterprises with under 45 million monthly active users in the EU will be exempted from certain new obligations to foster innovation. It also foresees a ban on profiling for advertising purposes based on sensitive data, such as political, sexual orientation, trade union membership, and the data of minors.
The negotiated text still has to be approved by the Council and the European Parliament. For the parliamentary part, it is expected that the IMCO committee will vote in June, following the vote in plenary on 4 July.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
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