3 December 2021
On 30 November 2021, members of SGI France, together with SGI Europe President Pascal Bolo and General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti, held a meeting with Clément Beaune, French Secretary of State for European affairs, ahead of the beginning of the French Presidency of the EU on 1 January 2022.
Organised at the Eiffel Tower (whose managing enterprise is a member of SGI France), the meeting focused on the key issues at the top of the agenda of the French Presidency, namely:
Together with SGI France, SGI Europe intends to play a key role in ensuring the success of the French presidency, with a strong agenda focused on the need for an SGI-centred EU recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contact: Antonio Astofli
On 30 November, SGI Europe published its position paper on the European Commission’s upcoming Delegated Act of the EU Taxonomy Regulation on nuclear and natural gas. You can find our position paper here.
Further to the request of the Presidential Team and General Secretary, and under their lead, the Energy Task Force Chair, Elmar Thyen (Wuppertaler Stadtwerke) and Vice-Chair Alain Taccoen (EDF), under the supervision of second Vice-Chair Cecilie Bjelland (Samfunnsbetriftene), have completed this first SGI Europe's position paper on both nuclear and natural gas in the context of the EU taxonomy.
In this paper, SGI Europe underlines the importance of establishing a balanced, technology-neutral and science-based EU Sustainable Finance Mechanism and welcomes the introduction of a Delegated Act on nuclear and natural gas as a critical element to a successful transition to climate-neutrality. The European Commission and EU Member States are currently intensively discussing the eligible criteria for the inclusion of nuclear and natural in the EU taxonomy.
The Delegated Act to the EU taxonomy on nuclear and natural gas is expected to be adopted by the European Commission by the end of the year.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, addressed the “Build Back Better” conference organised by the think-tank FEPS (Foundation for European Progressive Studies). Addressing the ongoing review of the EU economic governance, the event focused on the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 crisis and how to rebuild the EU on that basis.
Recalling the long-standing priority of SGI Europe to put investment at the top of the EU agenda, Ms Ronzitti emphasised the current environment, which sheds new light on the increased awareness regarding the investment needs across Europe. She proposed a vision for an EU economic governance to build back better beyond the GDP, based on the joint work of the EU Social Partners, and promoting productive investments in high-quality services of general interest with a realistic readjustment path of debt consolidation.
SGI Europe is currently preparing its response to the public consultation on the review of the EU economic governance. The deadline is 31 December 2021.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
On 3 December, SGI Europe attended the plenary meeting of the ESF+ Committee, where several topics were discussed, including the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy and the Autumn Semester package, the Toolkit on the use of EU funds for the integration of migrants and the future European Community of Practice on Partnership.
Ms Katia Berti, Head of Unit, Unit. F.1 European Semester, Directorate-General for Employment, presented the European Semester Autumn Package, emphasising the shift of focus from crisis management towards transformational and inclusive recovery in the medium-term. SGI Europe underlined that the involvement of social partners at national level, including SGI employers, is indispensable to ensure transparency and accountability, as well as the sound implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans.
Furthermore, SGI Europe highlighted the importance of a streamlined approach and coordination between the Recovery and Resilience Plans and the ESF+, especially on the clarity of the financial means related to the employment and labour market policies and actions.
In the framework of the ‘Toolkit on the use of EU funds for integration of migrants’, SGI Europe stressed that, for the successful integration of migrants and refugees into the labour market, access to essential services such as affordable housing, healthcare and education, is fundamental for the participation in training and skills development, and, eventually, finding jobs.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On Thursday 2 December, the SGI Europe Public Services Board gathered for the second meeting of 2021, taking stock of the state-of-play of key files including the revision of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), the evaluation of the SME definition, the reporting on the Public Procurement Package and the Work Programme for 2022.
Regarding the General Block Exemption Regulation, we had the honour to exchange with representatives of the European Commission’s DG Competition, who provided an overview of the content of the current revision and the state of play.
Addressing the evaluiation of the SME definition, Ms Cecilia Teruggi (FedEPL, SGI France) presented the outcomes of the evaluation by the European Commission of the SME definition, and proposed a way to move forward. Whilst the outcomes of the evaluation are detrimental to many of our members, a positive note is the endorsement of some of our speaking point on Local Public Services Enterprises (LPSEs).
The Public Procurement Package was also at the heart of the discussions, in the context of the economic evaluation of water exclusion from the Concessions Directive. The European Commission presented to our members the preliminary results of the study that will be a major input to the final report (foreseen to be published mid 2022), kick-starting the internal reflection on the preliminary findings and on ways to support the reporting exercise.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
On 8 December 2021, the European Commission will publish several new key initiatives in the field of social affairs.
Amongst these initiatives, there will be the anticipated legislative proposal for improving the working conditions in platform work, aiming to ensure that people working through platforms have – or can obtain – the correct legal employment status in the light of their relationship with the platform and gain access to associated labour and social protection rights. SGI Europe responded to the first and second stage consultations of the social partners stating its key priorities. In these contributions, SGI Europe invited the European Commission to refrain from proposing any definition of “platform work” and affirmed its strong preference for non-legislative instruments.
The anticipated Action Plan on Social Economy will also be unveiled on 8 December, which should increase the visibility of social economy and recognise its role in jobs creation, inclusive and sustainable growth and the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. You can find SGI Europe’s position paper with regard to the social economy action plan here.
Finally, the package will include the proposal on individual learning account, to which SGI Europe contributed via a tripartite opinion with the EU cross-industry social partners and representatives of the Member States representatives in the ACVT working group (Advisory Committee for Vocational education and Training), calling for ensuring that the EU initiative observes and respects the division of competences and the principle of subsidiarity.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
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