Newsflash - 5 November 2021

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

This Friday 5 November, from 15:30 CET, SGI Europe and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) are organising their first 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, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, Liina Carr, ETUC Confederal Secretary, Luis Natal Marques, President of SGI Portugal, and Regina Bastos, CoFoE National Coordinator at the Portuguese Presidency of the EU.

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.

SGI Europe’s participation in SGI Portugal’s seminar “Reconciliation of professional, personal and family life: perspectives and challenges”

On 5 November, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, participated in the SGI Portugal Seminar “Reconciliation of professional, personal and family life: perspectives and challenges” in Lisbon. Together with Luís Natal Marques, President of the Portuguese’s section of SGI Europe, she had the honour to present the concluding remarks.

Valeria Ronzitti shared SGI Europe’s understanding of work-life balance and reflections on possible measures on caring responsibility, especially in the context of the Covid-pandemic. She stressed the importance of better access to childcare and other care services and the clear link between access to these services and the employment for parents and caregivers.

She pointed out that leave schemes bear the risk to entrench gender differences in the share of care responsibilities in the household. Combatting gender stereotypes is crucial for achieving a better work-life balance for women. Furthermore, supporting and strengthening care services will play an essential role in alleviating the burden of care on women and better reconciling their working and private lives. In that context, she also welcomed the intention of the European Commission to revise the Barcelona targets as of 2022 in the framework of the European gender equality strategy.

Contact: Guillaume Afellat

SGI Europe at the EESC hearing Next Generation Strategy for SMEs

On Wednesday 3 November 2021, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, attended the public hearing “Next Generation Strategy for SMEs” organised in Athens (Greece) by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

The main purpose of the hearing was to further reflect on the draft opinion “Next Generation SME Strategy – Enhancing Effective and Swift Delivery”, currently being prepared by the co-rapporteurs, Milena Angelova, SGI Europe vice-president, and Panagiotis Gkofas.

Opening the event, Mrs Angelova expressed regrets about the recent evaluation of the SME definition by the European Commission, which fails to consider groups of SMEs such as micro-enterprises and social enterprises in need of specific support to achieve the goals of the twin transition.

In the panel discussion, General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti pointed out another group of enterprises excluded from any support that usually falls to the SMEs: local public service enterprises (LPSEs). Such an exclusion results in the lack of possibility to get administrative simplification and funding. Ms Ronzitti also highlighted that the report Next Generation SMEs strategy should include players that have to compete on local markets (for example, energy providers in competition with privately-owned enterprises). She concluded by calling for a win-win solution for all enterprises, as granting support to publicly owned enterprises would be detrimental to private ones.

Contact: Manca Pocivavsek

Register for the final conference of the EU Social Partners' project on “Skills, innovation and the provision of and access to training” – 18 November

Rapid labour market changes such as the industry 4.0 revolution, digitalisation, social, demographic, and environmental transitions, and global challenges require joint actions to improve education and training systems in a way that fosters innovation and enhances employees’ re-skilling and up-skilling.

In this context, the European social partners (ETUC, Business Europe, SGI Europe, SMEUnited) have undertaken a project on skills, innovation, and the provision of and access to training. The final conference of the project will take place online on 18 November, where the project final report and social partners policy recommendations will be presented and discussed. Interpretation will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Slovenian.

The conference will include a keynote speech from Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, and the opportunity for Q&A. Amongst the other confirmed speakers are Damir Orehovec, State Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (Slovenia), Mr Juergen Siebel, Executive Director at European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), and Cesare Onestini, Executive Director at the European Training Foundation.

Registrations will stay open until 8 November.

Contact: Stefan Enica

COP26: first commitments and pledges undertaken in Glasgow

From 31 October to 12 November, the UN COP26 Climate Change Conference takes place in Glasgow (United Kingdom). The COP26 brings together governments from around the world to agree on coordinated actions to tackle climate change. Led by European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, the EU negotiating team intends to highlight the objectives of the EU Green Deal whilst leading the way to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

With its ambition to keep the 1,5 degree Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement (COP21) alive, the COP26 delivered a first series of pledges and commitments to, amongst others:

• “work collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 whilst delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation”, backed by $12bn in public and $7.2bn in private funding (read more);
• implement the Breakthrough Agenda and “work together internationally this decade to accelerate the development and deployment of the clean technologies and sustainable solutions needed to meet our Paris Agreement goals, ensuring they are affordable and accessible for all” (read more);
• continue the phaseout of coal power, with 23 countries joining the coalition to end support for new coal power plants (read more);
• launch the Global Methane Pledge, with signing parties agreeing on a collective goal of reducing global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030 and moving towards using the best available inventory methodologies to quantify methane emissions (read more).

Also, building on the commitment of G7 Leaders to launch a values-driven, high-standard, and transparent infrastructure partnership to meet global development needs, the EU and US delegations hosted talks on how infrastructure initiatives must simultaneously advance prosperity and combat the climate crisis. As a result, they endorsed five critical principles for infrastructure development:

• Infrastructure should be climate-resilient and developed through a climate lens.
• Strong and inclusive partnerships between host countries, developed country support, and the private sector are critical to developing sustainable infrastructure.
• Infrastructure should be financed, constructed, developed, operated, and maintained following high standards.
• A new paradigm of climate finance—spanning both public and private sources—is required to mobilise the trillions needed to meet net-zero by 2050 and keep 1.5 degrees within reach.
• Climate-smart infrastructure development should play an important role in boosting economic recovery and sustainable job creation.

Ahead of the start of COP26, SGI Europe issued five key recommendations to EU leaders. You can consult them here.

Contact: Henriette Gleau