Newsflash - 7 March 2025

SGI Europe signs the Pact for Social Dialogue with the European Commission and EU Social Partners

On Wednesday, the cross-industry EU social partners (SGI Europe, ETUC, BusinessEurope and SMEunited) signed a new Pact for European Social Dialogue, which will strengthen the role of social partners in shaping labour market, employment, and social policies. Building upon the 2024 Val Duchesse Social Partner Declaration, the Pact addresses the key challenges faced by European economies.

The new Pact establishes a long-term framework with concrete actions to be taken by the Commission and social partners to strengthen and expand the scope of social dialogue, and promote a stronger consultation of social partners.

With this Pact, social partners committed to regularly preparing a multi-annual work programme to address the key economic and social challenges facing European labour markets and identify the appropriate instruments to tackle these challenges. Social partners will also establish joint procedures to improve their autonomous bipartite social dialogue, including negotiations of social partner agreements, and work together on the different types of social dialogue tools used at the EU level.

On its side, the European Commission will appoint a Social Dialogue Envoy to promote timely and meaningful consultations with social partners. It will also involve social partners in the preparation of the Quality Jobs Roadmap and exchange with social partners on their priorities to feed into the Commission’s Work Programme. The Commission committed to consult social partners also on policy initiatives that do not fall under the scope of article 153 and 154 TFEU, but are of particular relevance for social partners.

During the signing ceremony, Pascal Bolo, SGI Europe President, said: “With this Pact, SGI Europe renews its commitment to shaping labour markets and social policies alongside the European Commission. We now stand ready to constructively engage with social partners on a new multi-annual work programme.”

Contact: Guillaume Afellat

Kick-off conference of the project “Improving Skills Matching in Europe” of the Social Partners

On Thursday 6 March 2025, the EU cross-sectoral social partners gathered for the Kick-off conference of the Integrated project, "Improving Skills Matching in Europe". The event provided a platform for valuable exchanges on how to ensure the EU has the skills needed to remain competitive in the face of green, digital, and demographic transitions.

The conference brought together members from across Europe to discuss the role of social partners in diagnosing skills needs and share best practices on skills matching and effective actions to address labour and skills shortages. Discussions touched upon the challenges, opportunities and needed policy actions relating to recruitment, retention, reskilling and upskilling in Europe.

Through continued engagement and dialogue, the European social partners will work towards concrete recommendations on how to improve skills matching across Europe. The next step for the project is to disseminate a survey, collecting further, more in-depth information on the topic. This survey will be created with the input from the conference in mind and later shared with members of the Social partners.

Contact: Astrid Nordberg

The EU Commission unveiled its Union of Skills package

On Wednesday 5 March 2025, the EU Commission Executive Vice President, Roxana Minzatu, presented the Union of Skills initiatives to the public. This package aimed to address real concerns about how well the workforce is matched to the economy’s changing needs. It plans to tackle Europe’s skills shortages and strengthen the workforce in the face of digitalisation, climate transition, and demographic shifts. The package includes a chapeau communication and two action plans: the STEM Education Strategic Plan and the Action Plan on Basic Skills.

SGI Europe welcomes this Union of Skills as the reinforced focus of the new STEM Education Strategic Plan to address employers’ needs in VET and tertiary education and, in particular, the perspective to develop short courses leading to micro-credentials in strategic STEM sectors is key to reduce the lack of skills in the EU. The reinforced focus of the new STEM Education Strategic Plan to address employers’ needs in VET and tertiary education and, in particular, the perspective to develop short courses leading to micro-credentials in strategic STEM sectors represents an important step in that sense as well. Finally, SGI Europe also salutes the emphasis on basic support for EU teachers and trainers through various initiatives and to improve their professional development opportunities in school and vocational education.

SGI Europe will support the implementation of the Union of Skills initiatives to answer to labour and skills shortages impeding the delivery of SGIs across Europe.

Contact: Guillaume Afellat