Newsflash - 30 June 2023

SGI Europe event: "The Single Market at 30: What role for SGIs in its future?"

On 23 June 2023, on the occasion of the UN Day of Public Services, SGI Europe organised the event ‘The EU Single Market at 30: What role for SGIs in its future?’. It highlighted and reflected on the place of SGIs and public services in the EU single market. Marking the 30th anniversary of the single market, the reflection took stock of the past and looked at future challenges.

On this occasion, we welcomed keynote addresses by Maroš Šefčovič, European Commission Vice-President for Foresight and Inter-institutional Relations, as well as Oliver Röpke, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Pascal Bolo, President of SGI Europe. Panel discussions with speakers from the European Commission's DG GROW and DG REFORM, the EESC Employers' Group, CER (Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies), The Council of European Municipalities and Regions, PostEurop and the European Investment Bank (EIB) focused on the critical challenges for SGIs in the Single Market, as well as their future and their financing.

Contact: Maxime Staelens

SGI Europe adopts its Opinion on the 2040 EU climate targets

On 23 June, SGI Europe adopted its Opinion ‘The 2040 EU Climate Targets 2040: An SGI perspective to provide a truly sustainable Service of General Interest’. This Opinion was the basis for SGI Europe’s response to the European Commission's public consultation on the mid-term evaluation of the 2040 climate targets.

The Opinion presents SGI Europe’s position and outlines the path for SGIs in a climate-neutral economy, with a specific focus on the energy, transport, water, waste management and digitalization sectors. As the role of SGIs in the climate transition will become increasingly significant, SGI Europe urges for a balanced approach that respects the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable growth and guarantee truly affordable, accessible and high-quality services of general interest for future generations.

Relying on the need to provide services in the most sustainable way possible, both for the present and future generations, SGI Europe calls for a 2040 EU climate target of a minimum of 80% emissions reduction, in line with the path set by the EU Green Deal, and with increased decarbonisation efforts in sectors where economically and socially feasible. The implementation plan of the EU climate policy will require a careful examination of the economic, social and environmental dimensions, placing them all at the heart of EU decision-making. SGI Europe also calls for addressing the issues linked with investments, long-term visibility, and coherence among EU legislation to reach climate and energy targets. Finally, the circular economy must be further reinforced as it can improve the efficiency and sustainability of the EU industrial ecosystems.

Finally, SGI Europe calls upon EU institutions and Member States to put the transversal issue of water quality and availability in Europe on top of the EU Agenda for 2024-2029 and put forward an “EU Blue Deal”.

Contact: Henriette Gleau

SGI Europe at the event of the European Economic and Social Committee on Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reporting

On Wednesday 28 June 2023, the group on Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) organised a discussion about the Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reporting at the initiative of SGI Europe members from Employers of Poland.

Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary of SGI Europe, opened the discussion with a welcoming address alongside Oliver Röpke, President of the EESC, and Piotr Kaminski, Vice-President of Employers of Poland. On this occasion, Mrs Ronzitti highlighted that SGI Europe members, especially from the energy, transport, water or waste management sectors, are obliged, under ESG-related regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), to report on their activities under the sustainable finance framework. This is not an issue for some members with previous experience in sustainable finance reporting; however, others, like local energy producers or smaller public transport operators, have only recently started to realise the reality of this reporting obligation.

SGI Europe welcomes the focus put on ESG by the European Commission and supports its members in implementing those guidelines. To that aim, it will be crucial to provide guidelines, support mechanisms and educational workshops to enterprises.  

This event was followed up on the informal debate dinner Employers of Poland organised in Brussels on Thursday 22 June 2023. Those events raised awareness about the challenges, benefits, threats and opportunities ESG reporting provides for companies of all sizes, particularly MSMEs.

Contact: Benoît Cassorla

2023 High-Level event of the European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA)

On 26 and 27 June 2023, the European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) organised its yearly High-Level Event 2023. The event took place in Brussels and brought together high-level speakers and stakeholders who have contributed to the Alliance.

It looked back at what has been achieved since the launch of the Alliance in 2013 and paving the way forward. Several topics were discussed during the event, such as the 5th anniversary of the European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships, apprenticeships as a means to secure a skilled workforce, adult apprenticeships and apprentices as agents for a sustainable future.

SGI Europe was invited to speak in the introductory panel with the cross-industry social partners and highlighted two of its key transversal priorities in this context. SGI Europe explained that its key objective would be to establish further close cooperation between employers of SGIs and VET providers and to provide analysis, capacity-building and peer-learning opportunities to anticipate future skills needs in SGI sectors, especially in connection with digitalisation and climate change.

SGI Europe also highlighted some key challenges for SGI providers, including the financial challenge and the increasing pressure for public services “to do more with less”, demographic change, technical progress and innovation.

Contact: Guillaume Afellat

The European Commission adopted its revised guidelines on PSO regulation

On Thursday 22 June, the European Commission adopted its revised Interpretative Guidelines on Regulation (EC) 1370/2007 or PSO Regulation. The Interpretative Guidelines aim to improve legal certainty by updating the previous Guidelines (adopted in 2014) with the recent developments in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).  

In February 2022, SGI Europe submitted its feedback on the first draft of the PSO Interpretative Guidelines. At the time, SGI Europe raised concerns about the requirements to show user demand for services in advance. In comparison to the first draft from 2022, the adopted Interpretative Guidelines are now widening the meaning of a ‘user demand’. The revision now explicitly allows for considering existing and prospective demand from users but also expected demand which can reasonably arise from pursuing policy objectives such as promoting sustainable transport, regional connectivity, public health or social cohesion. For example, given the objectives of the EU Green Deal, the requirement to assess demand ex-ante is not incompatible with the possibility for competent authorities to expand the offer for public passenger transport for rail or road and to trigger a modal shift, in particular from individual cars, to greener services, including at international level in cooperation with other Member States.

Although the PSO Guidelines are limited to the transport sector, it is necessary also for other services of general (economic) interest to have a closer look since they are explaining the 1st Altmark criterion: ‘genuine public services obligation,’ by applying the recent case law (SNCM case).

Contact: Manca Pocivavsek