Newsflash - 30 April 2021

European Commission presents its proposal on Better Regulation

On Thursday 29 April, the European Commission presented its Communication on Better Regulation, intended to further improve the EU law-making process. The ambition of the European Commission is to further step up efforts to simplify EU legislation and reduce the burden, whilst making better use of strategic foresight and supporting sustainability and digitalisation.

To that aim, the European Commission plans to further involve Member States and stakeholders, including social partners, businesses and civil society, in the preparation of proposals. Amongst others, the following actions are foreseen:

• Removing obstacles and red tape that slow down investments;
• Simplifying public consultations by introducing a single ‘Call for Evidence' on the improved Have Your Say portal;
• Introducing a ‘one in, one out’ approach;
• Improving the way in which Better Regulation addresses and supports sustainability and digital transformation.
• Mainstreaming the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to ensure that all legislative proposals contribute to the 2030 sustainable development agenda.
• Integrating strategic foresight into policymaking to ensure it is fit for the future, by for instance, taking into account emerging megatrends in the green, digital, geopolitical and socio-economic contexts;
• Ensuring that better regulation supports the implementation of the ‘do no significant harm’ and the ‘digital by default’ principles across all policies.

A special focus is also given in the Communication to the Fit for Future Platform, the high-level expert group providing opinions on how to make EU legislation simpler, more efficient and future-proof, and in which SGI Europe is represented.

Contact: Antonio Astolfi

SGI Europe’s response to the Public Consultation on the European Commission Green Paper on Ageing

On 27 January 2021, the European Commission presented a green paper to launch a broad policy debate on the challenges and opportunities of Europe's ageing society. This paper highlights the impact of the pronounced demographic trend across the European economy and society and invited the stakeholders to express their views with a public consultation. SGI Europe responded to this important public consultation via the work of its social protection taskforce and the SGI Europe response was done in close collaboration with the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association (HOSPEEM).

In this position, SGI Europe members put a specific emphasis on the importance for European citizens to receive the best possible healthcare and long-term care. The focus is also set on the critical importance of adequate and sustainable pensions in the decades to come to live in dignity throughout retirement. This key objective is also enshrined in principle 15 of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

SGI Europe highlights the following key points throughout its response to the public consultation:

• SGI Europe supports the idea of multi-pillar pension systems able to provide adequate and sustainable pensions to the citizens of Europe. Pensions and health care systems must not leave anyone behind.
• The design, structure and management of pension and health care systems is a Member State (MS) competence. Therefore, it varies across the EU, as it depends on the national specificities, e.g., the economic and social situation, social and labour laws, cultural context, only to name a few. Any action at the EU level should recognise and respect this diversity.
• Regarding the legal environment, pension policies can influence people’s behaviour toward pension savings for better or worse. The legal and prudential environment should not prevent employers and employees from contributing to occupational pension plans. Therefore, it is essential to create or keep a pension-friendly legal environment (social and labour law, tax law, prudential law).
• SGI Europe stresses that society’s demographic change drives the demand in healthcare and long-term care (LTC). The demand will only continue to grow if the EU and the Member States do not fundamentally change how they approach healthcare. Member States must increase their investments in early prevention programmes in reducing the future potential need for healthcare and LTC.

Contact: Guillaume Afellat

SGI Europe input to the EU Soil Strategy

On 27 April, SGI Europe sent its response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the new EU Soil Strategy. This was the last set of public consultations on different ecosystems delivering on the specific commitments in the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030. The aim of the new EU Soil Strategy will be to address soil-and land-related issues in the environment and to meet the climate neutrality targets for 2050 set within the EU Green Deal.

SGI Europe welcomed the European Commission’s initiative to set up a new EU Soil Strategy planning to improve the quality of soils in Europe, to tackle land degradation and desertification and to increase biodiversity. In its input, SGI Europe highlights in particular that the quality and health of soil needs to guaranteed to ensure high-quality water resources for all EU citizens.

For this, SGI Europe pleads for an effectful systematic protection of soil and the environment though the coherence of European legal acts to keep providing safe EU water resources. In order to strengthen the good status of the water and soil environment, it is essential that measures in other sectors linking to the good standard of soils and water are also geared towards the corresponding environmental protection goals. This is the only way to make a sustainable and systematic contribution to improve their quality.

To read the full position paper with SGI Europe's policy recommendation on how to make the Soil Strategy a success, please find the position here.

Contact: Henriette Gleau

Consultation with the European Social and Economic partners regarding the Directive on Long-term residents and the Single Permit Directive

In the framework of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, launched by the European Commission in September 2020, DG Home Affairs invited the European Social and Economic partners to a consultation and exchange regarding the revision of the Directive on Long-term residents and the review of the Single Permit Directive on 5 May.

SGI Europe believes that the New Pact on Migration and Asylum is a step forward in the efforts to increase the collaboration between Member States, and to maximize EU added value through multi-stakeholder partnerships. SGI Europe will address within this consultation the need for complementary pathways for adult migrants to ease their mobility within the EU, based on employment, education or training opportunities.

In the framework of the consultation, SGI Europe will address the importance of making EU globally competitive for high skilled workers, and at the same time paying special attention to medium and low skills workers to address the different skills shortages present in the labour market.

SGI Europe considers that the successful integration of third country nationals is not related only to skills and employment, but also to the social integration process, which requires common efforts from all the stakeholders involved at all levels.

Contact: Stefan Enica

Finalisation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans

With the continent still stricken by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Next Generation EU recovery plan put forward by the European Union (EU) is taking shape as Member States started submitting this week their national recovery and resilience plans (NRRPs). Whilst several Member States have already submitted their NRRPs, the remaining will follow before or soon after the ‘soft’ deadline of 30 April indicated by the European Commission (EC).

At the heart of Next Generation EU, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) will provide up to €672.5 billion (of which €312.5 in grants and €360 in loans) to support investments and reforms enabling MS to emerge stronger from the crisis whilst securing the green and digital transitions.

The EC will now start its evaluation process with a particular focus on whether the plans dedicate at least 37% to support the climate objectives and 20% to the digital transition, whilst ensuring that the plans also address challenges identified in the relevant country-specific recommendations issued in the context of the European Semester.

The European Commission will then advance a proposal to the Council, which will have as a rule four weeks to adopt it. The Council's approval of the plan would finally pave the way for the disbursement of a 13% pre-financing to each Member State. This is however subject to the entry into force of the Own Resources Decision, which must first be approved by all Member States.

SGI Europe believes that the promotion of strategically designed investment in services of general interest (SGIs) is key to guarantee the recovery, promote upward convergence and, consequently, foster a stronger and more resilient European social market economy. To that goal, SGI Europe’s members have submitted their strategic investment projects to their respective national governments, in line with the abovementioned flagship priorities.

Contact: Antonio Astolfi

EMI event on the digital sovereignty of the European Union

On Tuesday, 27 April 2021, European Movement International and European Council on Foreign Relations, organised a discussion on the Digital sovereignty of the European Union in the international arena. The intention of the debate was to highlight some of the key issues of the current digital policymaking in the EU and developments in achieving digital sovereignty.

In the exchange, Roberto Viola, director general of the European Commission’s DG Connect pointed out the importance of the regulatory framework that facilitates human centric digital development. Alongside the GDPR, Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act and Data Governance Act, the Commission’s latest Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) also follows the approach of human centric digital development. Briefly, the Artificial Intelligence Act aims at guaranteeing the safety and fundamental rights of people and businesses, whilst strengthening AI uptake, investment and innovation across the EU. Whilst the artificial intelligence can, on the one hand immensely benefit our society with for instance improving medical care and education, it can, on the other hand also pose high risks. Therefore, the Regulation divides AI systems into different risk categories, such as unacceptable AI, high risk, limited risk and minimal risk. According to the category, different obligations apply.

Mr Viola also touched upon the issue of identity online. As it stands now, the possibility of having multiple identities online does not follow the human centric approach. The EU Identity Scheme (EUid) that the Commission will propose in few weeks, will remedy this. With the Revision of the eIDAS regulation, which since 2018 allows citizens to use their national e-ID also to access public services across borders in other Member States, the Commission aims at expanding the scope also to the private sector.

Contact: Manca Pocivavsek