5 March 2021
The European Commission presented this week its Action Plan for the European Pillar of Social Rights, which has the ambition to support a Social Europe that paves the way for a fair, inclusive and resilient socio-economic recovery. In a reaction, SGI Europe recalled the importance of SGI providers and Social Dialogue implementing the socio-economic recovery and contributing to build the future of the welfare state.
The Action Plan outlines concrete actions to further implement the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights as a joint effort by the Members States and the EU, with an active involvement of social partners and civil society. It also proposes employment, skills and social protection headline targets for the EU to be achieved by 2030, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Thursday 4 March, ETUC organised the dissemination conference of the Labour INT 2 project. This conference was the conclusion of the project Labour INT 2, which was launched in 2018 by the EU Social and Economic Partners (ETUC, SGI Europe, Eurochambres), with the support of the European Commission.
In the opening session of this conference, SGI Europe General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti underlined that the Labour-INT project started in a difficult political context, as a concrete answer of the European Social and Economic Partners to the refugee crisis, and that Labour-INT represents a real political success through the creation of a joint commitment at EU level to work with governments and all the involved stakeholders to develop policies to support refugees and migrants’ integration.
SGI Europe General Secretary emphasized the success of the multi-stakeholder EU co-financed Labour-INT 2 project in terms of building valuable instruments for refugees and migrants’ integration and in setting a playing field for successful collaboration between employers, trade unions, authorities and labour market institutions.
SGI Europe made a substantial contribution to the Labour-INT 2 project by coordinating the Expert Group on Skills and Migration (EGSM) together with the partners from the International and European Forum on Migration Research. The research missions and the activity within the EGSM helped the European Commission in testing and evaluating its ‘’EU Skills Profile Tool for Third Country Nationals’’.
Furthermore, an exploratory study was conducted within the EGSM, which mapped more than 40 ICT solutions for labour market integration, highlighting the digital experiences developed on the ground for refugees and third country nationals. The final reports of the EGSM are available on our website.
The Labour-INT 2 project created key knowledge that can be multiplied in future European projects for the successful implementation of concrete working tools and practices for fostering labour market integration of newcomers through skills assessment and skills matching.
Contact: Ștefan Enică
Yesterday, the European Commission presented a proposal on pay transparency, intended to ensure that women and men in the EU get equal pay for equal work. The proposal sets out pay transparency measures, such as pay information for job seekers, a right to know the pay levels for workers doing the same work, as well as gender pay gap reporting obligations for big companies. Following the publication of the proposal, SGI Europe issued a first reaction, highlighting the role of providers and employers of SGIs in advancing gender equality, tackling gender segregation and improving gender balance on workplace.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On 5 March, SGI Europe responded to the European Commission's public consultation on the evaluation of the Sewage Sludge Directive (SSD) and published its SGI Europe Position on SSD.
Since the environmental circumstances and the consumption behaviour of society and the industry have substantially changed over the last three decades, SGI Europe sees it as highly necessary to re-evaluate the Sludge Directive (SSD) and align it to the current challenges of climate change and EU climate policies also under the EU Green Deal. The parameters of the current Directive are not enough anymore to ensure a safe use of sewage sludge in agriculture, and it will be important to assure through adequate monitoring and controlling tools, maximum protection of the environment and human health.
SGI Europe strongly urges the European Commission to take into account the appropriate preventative measures in accordance with the Precautionary and Control at Source Principle. The use of sludge in the agricultural sector needs to be promoted to foster a true circular economy approach.
At the same time, SGI Europe calls on the Commission to support local municipalities as they need both the EU and national support for incentives and help in creating improved utilisation and recycling possibilities of sludge at the local or regional level.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
SGI Europe is starting two new projects funded by the European Commission: "Green Skills in VET" and "Involving SGIs in the European Semester".
In this framework, SGI Europe and the project partners express their intention to select external expertise to carry out a series of activities within the projects. The calls for tenders including the specifications and details of the selection procedure are available on our website.
Contact: Ștefan Enică
On 24 and 26 February, the Sustainable Finance Platform organised a series of webinars on the work of the Platform on the EU Taxonomy. The events were an opportunity to explore and discuss a variety of key concepts and possible future policy solutions, where interested stakeholders were able to ask questions via Twitter.
The webinars were focusing on what role the EU Taxonomy can play in mobilising finance for transition, as well as on the current work of the Platform focusing on extending the framework beyond green activities and offered an insight into the work process in developing the EU taxonomy criteria for the remaining four environmental objectives (water, circular economy, pollution, and biodiversity). With a direct seat in the Platform, SGI Europe ensures the inclusion of common principles safeguarding similar level of ambition across various sectors and aiming for a technology neutral approach as well as respecting the role of public undertakings. You can read the full SGI Europe response to the EU Taxonomy here.
You can also re-watch the entire event on 24 February here and the Event on 26 February here, where stakeholders could hear more on the development of a social EU Taxonomy.
Contact: Henriette Gleau and Ștefan Enică
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