29 May 2026
On Thursday 28 May 2026, SGI Europe President Ingbert Liebing and Secretary General Valeria Ronzitti met with António Costa, President of the European Council, to discuss the priorities at the top of the EU agenda, and how the Freedom to Stay can help reconnect the Single Market with citizens, territories and enterprises across Europe.
Ahead of the upcoming meeting of the hashtag#EuropeanCouncil on 18-19 June and its focus on the next hashtag#MFF, SGI Europe calls for the Freedom to Stay to be recognised as a strategic European objective and reflected in:
Access to housing, transport, healthcare, education, energy, water, digital connectivity, postal services and decent job opportunities is not only a social concern. It is also central to Europe’s competitiveness, cohesion, resilience and trust in the European project.SGIs are the practical infrastructure of Freedom to Stay. They make territories liveable, attractive and resilient. They sustain local economies, quality employment, equal opportunities and social cohesion. They are also the basis of a resilient and well-prepared territory.
Competitiveness cannot be built only from already strong territories. It requires investment in the infrastructure and services that allow all regions to contribute to Europe’s prosperity. The Freedom to Stay should therefore become a top priority for the European Council, and services of general interest must be treated as essential infrastructure for Europe’s competitiveness, cohesion and resilience.
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
In the context of the SGI Day, SGI Europe will hold an event on “The Coalition for the Freedom to Stay: how Services of General Interest can support in operationalising the Freedom to Stay across Europe” on Tuesday 23 June 2026, from 14:00 to 17:30, at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels.
This year, SGI Europe’s annual flagship event will bring together representatives from the European Commission, including Executive Vice-President Roxana Minzatu, from the EU Parliament, especially Camilla Lauretti, co-chair of the Intergroup on Social Economy and Services of General Interest, key EU stakeholders, such as Seamus Boland, President of the EESC, and SGIs providers.
This year’s edition will focus on taking stock of the progress achieved by the Coalition for the Freedom to Stay, launched by SGI Europe and sectoral partners following Enrico Letta’s reflections on the future of the Single Market.
The event will connect the Freedom to Stay with key EU policy developments, from the Anti-Poverty Strategy recently published, to the upcoming Action Plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights. It will also feed the broader discussion on preparedness and resilience of the EU. At the same time, participants will reflect on how strengthening the capacity of SGIs will support social cohesion, territorial resilience, the EU competitiveness, and citizens’ trust in the European project.
You can register to join us with the following link.
Contact: Benoît Cassorla
On Wednesday, 27 May 2026, SGI Europe took part in PharmaConnect 2026, the platform for dialogue on Europe’s health ecosystem, organised by the European Healthcare Distribution Association (GIRP).
Represented by its General Secretary, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe participated in the panel “A World Without Systemic Wholesalers: What if Public Service Providers Were No More?”, dedicated to the role of systemic wholesalers as public service providers within a changing health ecosystem, and their contribution to resilience and reliable access to medicines.
During the discussion, SGI Europe stressed that services of general interest are fundamental pillars of the European economic and social model. It emphasised that when operators of those services are expected to guarantee resilience, continuity and territorial coverage without the necessary recognition and support, the long-term sustainability of the service is put at risk.
Particular attention was given to healthcare distribution, where continuity of supply and territorial coverage directly affect public health and patient safety. SGI Europe underlined that if operators are required to fulfil obligations such as nationwide coverage, mandatory stockholding or service continuity in low-density areas, public authorities must ensure that appropriate frameworks are in place to support these responsibilities.
More broadly, SGI Europe underlined that SGIs and public services should be seen as structural investments in Europe’s resilience, competitiveness and territorial cohesion, rather than as corrective tools for market failures.
Finally, SGI Europe presented the Coalition on the Freedom to Stay, which aims to ensure that citizens can continue to live and work in the regions they call home, including access to high-quality, affordable services of general interest across the EU.
Contact: Raquel Carro-Andollo
On 28 May 2026, the Italian partners of the LABOUR-INT III project, Fondazione SMILE Puglia, organized an event in Bari, Italy to present the results of the vocational training activities delivered to migrants and to award certificates of attendance to participants.
The event marked the conclusion of three vocational training courses organized for 41 migrants in the textile and logistics sectors, as well as on the creation of cooperatives. The courses were implemented in the framework of LABOUR-INT III EU-funded project and aimed to support the labour market integration of non-EU migrant citizens residing in Puglia. They were aligned with the professional profiles and Training Units of the Regional Directory of Professions of the Apulia Region, covering garment execution and readjustment, warehouse operations, and cooperative creation. Participants were selected through a dedicated procedure assessing previous qualifications and experience, knowledge of Italian, and motivation to take part in the training pathway
The event brought together project partners and regional stakeholders to reflect on the outcomes of the training activities and their contribution to strengthening access to employment opportunities for third-country nationals. Following a presentation on the organization of the trainings and the results from the colleagues from SMILE Puglia, many other local, regional, national and European stakeholders' representatives took the floor to reflect on the outcomes of the training activities and their contribution to strengthening access to employment opportunities for third-country nationals.
By combining career guidance, vocational training, and cooperation with local actors, the initiative illustrates LABOUR-INT III’s broader objective of promoting inclusive labour market pathways and strengthening multi-stakeholder cooperation to integrate third-country nationals into European labour markets.
Contact: Cecilia Martin
SGI Europe has been invited by the European Commission to join the High-Level Group on Non-discrimination, Equality and Diversity as an observer, alongside the other European cross-sectoral social partners. The decision follows the recent enlargement of the group’s composition by the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST), with the objective of strengthening exchanges with actors from the world of work and broader civil society.
The High-Level Group is an important platform supporting exchanges between the European Commission and Member States on equality, diversity and non-discrimination policies. Its work contributes to the broader development of the European Union’s “Union of Equality” agenda and addresses issues linked to inclusion, equal opportunities and the fight against discrimination across Europe.
For SGI Europe, participation in this framework represents an important opportunity to bring the perspective of services of general interest and public service employers into discussions on equality and diversity at the EU level. As employers delivering essential services across Europe, SGI Europe members are directly confronted with the practical realities of inclusion, workforce diversity and equal access to services in sectors such as healthcare, transport, energy, water, education and social services.
The participation of European social partners in the group also reflects a growing recognition that equality and non-discrimination policies are closely linked to labour market realities, skills, working conditions and access to essential services. In this regard, SGI Europe looks forward to contributing constructively to future exchanges and sharing the operational experience of employers delivering services of general interest throughout Europe.
The first meeting of the enlarged High-Level Group will take place on 30 June and 1 July 2026 in Brussels.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On 27 May, the Sustainability Board took place to discuss the current draft opinion on the Tech Sovereignty Package and the SGI Europe campaign on Freedom to Stay.
A central pillar of the discussion focused on moving the newly launched Coalition for the Freedom to Stay from a high-level concept into a concrete reality. To ensure that EU institutions recognise high-quality SGIs as structural pillars of the Single Market and territorial cohesion, robust evidence is essential. Members are highly encouraged to fill out the Freedom to Stay Surve. Your input provides the indispensable data needed to demonstrate the true value of local public services in preventing forced regional depopulation.
The Board mapped out an overarching strategy for the European Commission’s upcoming Sovereignty Package, finalising a foundational opinion paper on CADA and digital sovereignty to anchor immediate EU advocacy for SGIs.
The discussion established critical benchmarks to safeguard European infrastructure, prioritising European cloud independence from non-EU providers by embedding SGI needs into projects from inception. To prevent cascading systemic failures, integrated planning must synchronise energy, water, waste heat recovery, and municipal data centres. This cross-sectoral approach is vital given the massive energy and water footprint of modern data centres.
Consequently, upcoming frameworks must enforce strict data localisation, cybersecurity, regular third-party audits, and interoperability among operators. Alongside these digital safeguards, infrastructure requires built-in climate resilience against flooding, heat, and storms, utilising a proportionality principle for small municipal facilities.
Following the publication of the package, a swift analysis will be conducted to develop a targeted advocacy plan, followed by a detailed technical annex with concrete implementation recommendations for the European Parliament and the EU Council.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
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