8 October 2021
The General Secretary of SGI Europe, Valeria Ronzitti, was invited to speak at the Seventh G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit (P20) which took place on the 7 and 8 October in the Italian Senate in Rome.
The Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit is part of broader efforts to bring a parliamentary dimension to global governance. Amongst the many high-level participants were Mario Draghi, President of the Council of Ministers (Italy) and Amina J. Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti was part of the first panel on the response to the social and employment crisis caused by the pandemic, together with Luca Visentini, ETUC Secretary-General, Mathias Cormann, OECD Secretary-General, and Maria Chiara Carrozza, President of the National Research Council (CNR Italy).
For the first time, social partners were invited to a P20 Summit. It was a crucial moment, as in many Member States Social Partners struggled to make their voice heard during the response to the health crisis. Speaking also on behalf of Business Europe and SMEUnited, Mrs Ronzitti had the opportunity to emphasise employers' concern about labour and skill shortages, the need for more active labour market policies and improved education and training to prepare workers for the green and digital transitions.
Furthermore, she made clear that in the aftermath of the Pandemic it is essential to recognise the vital role of SGIs and perceive supporting them as an investment in society and the economy.
You can re-watch the conference here.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Tuesday 5 October, Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe General Secretary, addressed the event “Towards a strong European public service agenda: How to (re)build a social Europe after Covid-19?”, co-organised by the European Policy Centre (EPC) and the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI). Other speakers included, amongst others, MEP Dragos Pislaru, Barbara Kauffmann, Director at the European Commission’s DG Employment, Fabian Zuleeg, Chief Executive of the EPC, and Klaus Hegger, General Secretary of CESI. .
The conference was an opportunity to take stock of the lessons learnt from the pandemic and highlight the need for a strong investment agenda in Europe, especially in services of general interest and public services. On this occasion, Mrs Ronzitti emphasised the link between underinvestment in SGIs and the undermined ability of our societies to react to shocks. She also called for a real political will to fix the current situation, and turn quick fixes into long-term changes, including on the much-needed reform of the economic governance which will be launched in the coming weeks by the European Commission.
General Secretary Ronzitti finally restated SGI Europe’s call for a new paradigm, mixing public and private investment in order to improve the quality of provision of SGIs and support the Cohesion Policy. You can re-watch the full event here.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
On 4 October, SGI Europe attended the Meeting of Directors-Generals for Vocational Education and Training (DGVT) which took place with the support of the Slovenian Presidency on the theme of ‘VET and adult learning becoming more agile for better work and life’.
The meeting aimed to provide an opportunity to reflect on the state of play of European vocational education and training policies for the next decade, with special attention focused on the future agenda for adult learning. SGI Europe and its member, the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE), were invited to present their on-going project ‘Green Skills in VET’ in the panel ‘Supporting environmental sustainability in VET provision’.
SGI Europe and EFEE underlined the need to identify and improve partnerships between SGI and VET providers, for creating local ecosystems which can facilitate the alignment between the green skills needs and the learning provision, whilst also supporting the professional development of VET staff.
SGI Europe and EFEE emphasised the need to increase the attractiveness of specific occupations in the key sectors affected by the environmental transition such as energy, water, and transport, which is strictly connected with raising the image and visibility of VET education, and offering VET providers adequate learning facilities and a clear didactic framework for teaching green skills.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On 5 October, the European Parliament, in its plenary setting, adopted a motion for a resolution regarding the first European Commission Delegated Regulation supplementing the EU Taxonomy Regulation. This first Delegated Act of the EU Taxonomy outlined the technical screening criteria for determining the conditions under which an economic activity qualifies as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation and climate adaptation and if the economic activities cause no significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives.
SGI Europe holds a permanent seat in the Platform for Sustainable Finance, where the second Delegated Act of the technical screening criteria for the four remaining environmental objectives are currently being developed. In its latest response to the public consultation on this second Delegated Act, SGI Europe underlined that the concept of the sustainable finance mechanism and the Taxonomy Regulations can act as an enabling tool to realise the objectives set in the EU Green Deal.
Yet, SGI Europe strongly believes that more attention should be paid to the public sector and SGIs as they are the providers of general interest. There is an unbalanced assessment of the impact for the public sector, compared to the private sector. Therefore, SGI Europe has called upon the European Commission to ensure technical assistance and capacity building by providing enabling EU funds. This will be essential to assess the public sector’s compliance with the EU Taxonomy and ensure a secure the continuity of general services to the public in this green transition phase.
Whilst the European Parliament voted in favour of this Delegated Act, the Council decided to extend the scrutiny period for another 2 months on the Delegated act. During the meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) on 5 October, Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability, and Capital Markets Union, called on the Council to adopt the act by 7 December 2021, to avoid jeopardising the Regulation’s entry into force on 1 January 2022.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
Last Thursday, the Commission published a Staff Working Document evaluating the Recommendation of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (2003/361/EC).
The SME Recommendation and its implications have been one of the focuses of the Public Services Board in the recent years. SGI Europe’s main point of the disagreement with the definition as it is laid down in the Recommendation is the so-called “ownership criterion,” (Art. 3.4.), which states that an enterprise in which a public body controls, individually or jointly with other public bodies, more than 25 % of the capital or voting rights is not considered as an SME.
Contrary to our views, the Commission concludes that there is overall no need for a revision of the definition. Regarding the ownership criterion, the Commission reiterates its old reasoning that:
1. The ownership may provide advantages in public tenders or other types of support from the public owner,
2. The LPSEs are experiencing less problems compared to other SMEs, especially with payment delays and access to finance,
3. The LPSES are the ones most confident that they can obtain external financing in case of need
4. The LPSEs judge most positively their business environments in term of access to and collaboration with business partners, access to private and public funding, and quality of support services.
SGI Europe does not accept such a justification, since it is at odds with the reality of LPSEs, which are usually owned by smaller local authorities that often do not have sufficient financial resources even to cover the costs of directly managed activities. You can read our position paper here.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
Gathering amidst Europe’s energy crisis on Monday 4 October, Ministers of the Eurogroup discussed the issue and its implications on inflation with the director of the EU Agency for the Coordination of Energy Regulators (ACER), Christian Zinglersen, who updated the group on recent energy price developments. This will inform Eurogroup's regular monitoring of economic developments in the euro area.
Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup, called on Member States to be cautious, foreseeing the current energy crunch as a temporary phenomenon linked to the recent uptick in inflation. His comments echoed those made by European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, who said there were no signs of the trend becoming "broad-based" across the bloc. Ministers also exchanged views on the macro-economic situation and developments in the euro area.
On Tuesday 5 October, Ministers in the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) discussed a series of important subjects, including the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the state of play regarding SURE, and also exchanged views on the lessons learned from the European Semester 2021 and on a possible way forward in the context of the national recovery plans via, for instance, a possible alignment of the implementation of the RRF with the next cycle of the European Semester.
Concluding the meeting, Paolo Gentiloni, member of the European Commission in charge of Economy, confirmed that the Commission will relaunch the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) review on 19 October with a communication aiming at framing the discussion of fiscal rules and reaching a broad consensus for concrete proposals likely around spring 2022.
Contact: Antonio Astolfi
The application procedure of the SGI Europe CSR Label, the only European label for Services of General Interest (SGIs), will stay open until 5 November.
Find the degree of Corporate Social Responsibility of your enterprise by trying the self-assessment tool, which is the first step of the awarding process, available in 8 languages and free of charge.
Contact: Stefan Enica
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