Newsflash - 7 June 2024

Use Your Vote in the EU elections – 6-9 June 2024

Since Thursday (in the Netherlands) and until Sunday, 373 million eligible European voters will elect the 720 MEPs for the next five years. The EU elections are a unique moment to collectively decide on the future of the European Union. The more people vote, the stronger our European democracy becomes.

As communication partner of the European Parliament in the #UseYourVote campaign, SGI Europe calls on those eligible to vote to make their voices heard, express their views and collectively shape a bright future that works for all, respecting diversity, openness and tolerance.

You can find all the information on the EU elections 2024: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/

Reminder: Register to join our event on “The Green Single Market as a Lever for Sustainable Competitiveness” on 17 June 2024

On Monday 17 June 2024, SGI Europe will hold its event on “The Green Single Market as a Lever for Sustainable Competitiveness” from 14:00 to 17:30 at the EESC. This event will feed SGI Europe's contribution to the report on the future of EU competitiveness, which Mario Draghi is currently drafting.

The first panel will be on “The Contribution of SGIs to the Green Single Market”, allowing SGIs providers and employers’ sectoral organisations and companies to explain how their contribution is vital to the Single Market and the Green Deal that goes along with it and how they are making the bridge between the two.

The second panel on “SGIs as enablers and actors of the EU competitiveness” will highlight how Services of General Interest are at the core of the future of a competitive, fair, and green EU economy and how their approach to EU competitiveness, from a different perspective to the classic business community, shows their role as enablers and actors of EU competitiveness.

For more information, agenda and registration, click here!

Contact: Benoit Cassorla

Interview with General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti on the EU elections

In the final stretch before the EU elections, Valeria Ronzitti, the General Secretary, presented SGI Europe’s activities in the Italian online news outlet BeeMagazine.

During the interview, General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti highlighted, in particular, the initiative Companies for Democracy, as well as the broader picture, including the future of Europe, the need for high-quality, accessible and affordable services of general interest and why ensuring a strong presence in Brussels is crucial for SGI providers from around Europe.

You can read the interview in full here (in Italian).

SGI Europe joins the event on “Gender equality and employment” of the working group on the performance of labour markets and social systems

On 5 June, SGI Europe and the EU social partners organised a meeting of the dedicated working group on gender equality and employment in the context of the EU social partners’ project activities on improving the performance of labour market and social systems.

The seminar explored social partner perspectives on this topic and addressed vital priorities, including how to tackle gender segregation and how to close the gender pension gap. The meeting aimed to facilitate mutual learning on policy initiatives and concrete actions by social partners and EU and national public authorities.

SGI Europe contributed to the discussion, emphasising the importance of establishing gender equality as a structural priority in the European semester, which now has a reinforced link with European economic governance. This would help, for instance, ensure stable investments in early childhood education and care and elderly care services, which are crucial to ensuring a reinforced labour market participation of women and limiting the impact of care and career breaks on pension entitlements. SGI Europe further emphasised the importance of making progress when it comes to gender budgeting within the Multiannual financial framework.

Contact: Guillaume Afellat

ACER publishes report benefit sharing to promote more efficient investments in energy infrastructure

On 6 June, the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) published, together with the Florence School of Regulation (FSR), a report on how regulation can promote efficient and innovative infrastructure investments to address electricity transmission system needs.

In this report, the electricity transmission networks call for new ways of handling costs and infrastructure efficiency in electricity regulation and finding answers to questions on remuneration schemes, efficient infrastructure investments and how to stimulate the adoption of these solutions addressing system concretely needs cheaper and faster. The report further elaborates on the common taxonomy of network regulation, maps existing incentives that support infrastructure efficiency whilst putting a focus on jurisdictions implementing total expenditure (TOTEX) or innovation-centred regulatory schemes, showcases feedback from TSOs, regulators and public stakeholders and proposes a new regulatory scheme that outlines the main features of an incentive-based approach to promote more efficient, innovative solutions to address electricity system needs.

ACER commissioned the FSR to conduct a consultancy study on the benefit-based remuneration of efficient infrastructure investments. The outcome provides a regulatory scheme that promotes more efficient and innovative solutions to address electricity transmission system needs. Such a scheme represents an additional course of action that energy regulatory authorities can take to regulate investments in electricity transmission networks.

Contact: Henriette Gleau