Newsflash - 29 October 2021

SGI Europe recommendations to leaders at the COP26

Starting on 31 October, the COP26 will bring together in Glasgow world leaders to further boost global climate actions. The focus of the COP26 will be to “secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach”, “adapt to protect communities and natural habitats”, “mobilise finance” and “work together to deliver”.

Ahead of the start of COP26, SGI Europe issues the following recommendations to leaders to demonstrate their commitment to accelerating climate action:

• The latest report of the IPCC “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis” published in August 2021 highlighted unequivocally the increasing impact of human influence on climate change and weather and climate extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones. Decisive actions are needed to accelerate climate action, and the EU, with its Green Deal and proposals to become the first climateneutral continent by 2050, must continue to lead the way.
• Essential in both the mitigation and the adaptation processes, services of general interest are at the heart of this climate transition by the nature of their services, energy, transport, housing, waste management, water, environment, and telecommunications. SGIs also connect citizens to decisionmakers by bringing government actions to life. Their contributions to the climate transition should be central in order to deliver a sustainable transition balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions.
• SGI Europe calls for ambition and for strong binding commitments undertaken by all parties. Building up on the commitments of the EU Green Deal and the proposals to bring it to life, EU leaders should play a central role in leading the way.
• Climate change policies cannot ignore the investment challenge. There is a strong economic case for investing in climate action as this will create the sustainable growth and jobs Europe needs. In order to unleash the full potential of investments in climatefriendly solutions, private investment needs to be underpinned by public investment.
• The social challenge must not be ignored. The issue of “burden sharing” will be crucial, as climate policies cannot be deployed in a context of growing inequality. The implementation of the commitments will have to integrate this dimension at its core to foster their acceptability for all.

Contact: Henriette Gleau

SGI Europe at the plenary session of the Conference on the Future of Europe

On 23 October, Pascal Bolo, SGI Europe President, and Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary, attended the second plenary session of the Conference on the Future of Europe in Strasbourg to discuss and exchange views on citizens' contributions.

The Plenary was prepared by the Working Groups, which held their first constitutive meetings on Friday 22 October, with SGI Europe representatives present in the Health and the Climate change and Environment.

Whilst addressing the Plenary on Saturday, Ms Ronzitti first emphasised the importance of the Conference in bringing policymakers, stakeholders, and citizens together to discuss and engage on a wide array of issues and policies. Moreover, addressing the Conference’s process and functioning, she indicated the role of social partners, and stakeholders’ organisations in general, as bridge-builders between the micro and macro levels of the policy discussions respectively in the Working Groups and in the Plenary.

For the first time, 80 representatives of the European Citizens' Panels took for the first time their seats as Members of the Plenary, with spokespersons from each panel outlining their key discussions and proposals.

The next Plenary will take place on 17-18 December, and will be building up on the Citizens' Panels of November, and the Multilingual Digital Platform.

Contact: Antonio Astolfi

SGI Europe-ETUC joint event on the Conference on the Future of Europe – 5 November, 15:30-17:30 (CET)

As part of a series of joint events, SGI Europe and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), together with SGI Portugal, are organising a hybrid conference on the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), with high level participation from, amongst others, Ana Mendes Godinho, Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security of Portugal.

The event will cover a series of wide-ranging issues related to the CoFoE such as its current state of play, how to effectively translate inputs from citizens and stakeholders into concrete reforms and the long-term impact on the democratic outlook of the Union.

You can find all the information on our website.

Contact: Antonio Astolfi

SGI Europe at the 6th edition of the European Migration Forum

On 27 and 28 October, SGI Europe attended the 6th edition of the European Migration Forum, an event co-organised by the European Commission (DG HOME) and the European Economic and Social Committee. Since 2015, the European Migration Forum, the main platform for dialogue at EU level with civil society, gather Member States and social partners on migration issues, including asylum and integration matters.

On this occasion, SGI Europe highlighted that access to essential services such as affordable housing, healthcare, and education, is fundamental for the successful integration of migrants and refugees into the labour market, creating the basis for participating in training and skills development, and entering the workforce.

The European Migration Forum also selected several projects to be presented in the ‘Virtual Marketplace’ of the event, amongst which the project Labour-INT, implemented by ETUC and SGI Europe between 2018 and 2021. The project helped to build valuable instruments for refugees and migrants’ integration and set a playing field for successful collaboration between employers, trade unions, authorities, and labour market institutions, through the multi-stakeholder approach. The Labour-INT project also supported the European Commission in testing its ”EU Skills Profile Tool for Third Country Nationals” as part of the activities of the Expert Group on Skills and Migration coordinated by SGI Europe with the partners from FIERI (International and European Forum on Migration Research).

Contact: Stefan Enica

Hearing of the EU Social Partners on the Social and Labour Aspects of the Just Transition towards Climate Neutrality

On 22 October, the European Commission organised a dedicated hearing of the EU Social Partners on the upcoming proposal for a Council recommendation on addressing a socially fair and just climate and energy transition, foreseen for publication on 14 December 2021.

Those proposals follow up to the Fit for 55 Package published in July, which delivered a pathway to reach the energy and climate targets whilst delivering social fairness across all sectors. The European Commission already proposed a new Social Climate Fund to help mitigate the costs for the most vulnerable.

However, there is still a lack of accompanying policies addressing the employment and social dimensions of the transition, which notably risks affecting the most vulnerable. The Commission is therefore preparing a proposal for a Council Recommendation intends to guide Member States further on how to ensure that the transition towards climate neutrality is just and inclusive, whilst maximising the potential of the green transition to implement the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The Recommendation could include:

• calls to design comprehensive policy packages for a just and sustainable green transition, including enabling affordable access to essential services for all (including energy and transport), with a focus on vulnerable groups and regions;
• strengthening the role of social partners and EU stakeholder relationships;
• making optimal use of public and private funding.

Contact: Henriette Gleau

Joint Seminar on Combatting Gender stereotypes in the world of work

On 27 October 2021, the EU cross-industry social partners organised a web-conference on “Combatting stereotypes in the world of work”. Gender equality, including the fight against gender stereotypes, has been a key priority for the social partners for many years. Past actions on the topic include the development of a framework of actions around four pillars (available here) and a gender toolkit (available here). The seminar, gathering speakers from the European Commission, Eurofound and sectoral social partner organisations had the following objectives:

Raise awareness and improve understanding of employers, workers and their representatives on the EU Gender Equality Strategy and particularly on gender stereotypes;

Give the Social Partners an opportunity to learn from each other and to exchange on actions taken to fight gender stereotypes, including possible best practices and challenges encountered;

Discuss social partners’ support needs, including capacity building, and possible actions by EU social partners and support from EU institutions to address these.

One of SGI Europe’s key messages emphasised that traditional gender roles and stereotypes continue to have a strong influence on the division of labour between men and women at home, in the workplace and in society at large, and tend to continue a vicious circle of obstacles to gender equality. Social partners have a key role to play in addressing gender roles and stereotypes in employment and in the workplace, including in the context of the COVID 19 crisis.

Actions at all levels remain necessary to tackle gender stereotypes and their impact. EU social partners will consider further actions on the topic, including in the negotiations of their next Multiannual Work programme and with further cooperation with sectoral social partners. Social partners also stand ready to contribute to the future European Commission campaign on combatting gender stereotypes.

Contact: Guillaume Afellat

DMA and DSA consideration of compromise amendments in IMCO committee

On Tuesday 26 October 2021, the committee for Internal Market of the European Parliament (IMCO) considered the compromise amendments on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA). You can read SGI Europe position papers here (DMA and DSA). Both acts are facing delays in finding common positions and as a consequence, voting in IMCO committee initially scheduled for 8 November was postponed.

For the DMA, the rapporteur, MEP Andreas Schwab (DE, EPP) stressed that finding compromises is not an easy task, but they are committed to proceed as fast as possible. The outstanding issues remain, amongst others, the definition of gatekeepers, the scope of the regulation, targeted advertising, and the inclusion of national competition authorities in the enforcement process.

The discussion on the DMA was concluded with Inge Bernaerts, Director of policy & strategy at DG Competition of the European Commission, who emphasised that the obligations have to remain factual and should not become too vague. She also reflected on the ban on personalised advertising, which is often preferred by consumers and SMEs.

The rapporteur for the DSA, Christel Schaldemose (DK, S&D) explained that work on DSA is lagging. For MEPs, striking the right balance in the proposals seems to be particularly difficult regarding the obligations for SMEs, recommendation systems and algorithms.

MEP Schaldemose further expressed criticism concerning the Commission’s interventions at this stage and called for caution and respect of the role of the European Parliament as co-legislator. This concern was echoed by MEP Geese (DE, Greens/EFA) who expressed surprise on the perception of targeted advertising as a benefit for consumers and SMEs. In her opinion, on the contrary, such targeted advertisement is hampering innovation.

The next meeting of the IMCO committee will take place on 8 November 2021.

Contact: Manca Pocivavsek

HOSPEEM Webinar on "Partnerships in Digital Skills Development" 17 November 2021 - 10.30 - 12.30 (CET) - REGISTER BY 9 NOVEMBER 2021

HOSPEEM invites the SGI Europe network to their next webinar, which will look into how the management processes and the related use of digital tools have been changing and adapting, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. It will also analyse the impact of these changes on healthcare professionals and patients. Examples from the HOSPEEM Membership will be showcased and discussed. They will also welcome Ms Raluca Painter, DG Reform, Head of Unit - Labour market, Education, Health and Social services who will present the Flagship Initiative on Digital Skills for the health and care workforce. Please find the agenda here and register here.

Contact: Simone Mohrs