9 September 2022
On Wednesday 7 September, the European Commission presented its Care Strategy. Aimed at improving the quality of care in Europe, the transversal package includes a Commission communication and two proposals for Council Recommendations on revising the Barcelona targets on early childhood education and access to affordable high-quality long-term care. SGI Europe welcomes the package, as the sustainability of care services impacts every European at some point in their lifecycle.
It is commendable that the strategy addresses both care receivers and carers to ensure care services’ affordability, accessibility and availability. Furthermore, in our current unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, providing funding opportunities for care services’ betterment is paramount. In this respect, the Care strategy usefully draws attention to the availability of union-wide financial instruments that can be applied to improve care for all and recommends to Member states to improve long-term investments in the care sector. It was equally crucial to address in this package the issue of labour and skills shortages in the care sectors, a topic often reported by SGI Europe’s members. We welcome that the Commission emphasises the importance of including social partners at the EU and national level in delivering sustainable and resilient strategies for tackling labour shortages in the care sector.
Finally, it is essential to address the care sector from a gender perspective as the Care Strategy does. The gender care gap, reflected in the gender-segregated formal sector and the disproportionate burden on women in the informal care sector, remains essential to ensure a pathway towards better care for all.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
BusinessEurope, ETUC, SGI Europe and SMEunited launched a call for subcontracted expertise (available here) to create, develop and take care of the maintenance of a digital tool and produce video/communication materials to support its use. This digital tool aims to support the implementation of the EU cross-sectoral social partners’ autonomous framework agreement on digitalisation and constitutes an essential part of the upcoming Integrated Projects of the EU social dialogue 2022-2023.
Experts interested in submitting a bid should do so by 30 September 2022.
Contact: Stefan Enica
On Friday 9 September, during an Extraordinary Energy Council meeting, Energy ministers will exchange views on emergency measures to reduce high energy prices and present the state of play for next winter preparedness.
In this context, the Czech Presidency has prepared a Background paper on possible emergency measures to mitigate high energy prices. As in the Non-paper on Emergency Electricity Market Interventions of the Commission, three interlinked actions have been proposed: a coordinated demand reduction for electricity, a price cap for inframarginal technologies providing Member States with additional revenues, and support measures to consumers. The background paper to prepare the exchange of views also explores the possibility of decoupling or limiting the impact of gas on the price of electricity, increasing liquidity on the market, and considering how to use the EU ETS System better.
Considering the criticality of the situation, most of the Members States already took provisions at the national level to mitigate high energy prices and protect consumers from soaring energy costs. Local utilities – water, electricity and gas suppliers - delivering energy to consumers are, in this respect, essential stakeholders assuring the last link in the energy supply chain. In some Member States, such as Germany and Austria, utilities are struggling with record-high up-front energy trading costs requiring an equivalent increase in liquidities to guarantee against default payment.
While large energy companies receive a lot of attention from national governments, the role of utilities in the energy supply chain is underestimated. Some utilities are risking multiple bailouts and facing bankruptcy, undermining the integrity of the energy value chain to the detriment of consumers. SGI Europe, therefore, calls on Member States to protect local utilities and preserve their vital role in the energy sector for the benefit of the economy as a whole and consumers.
Contact: Ariel Carpanini
Currently, the Commission is seeking feedback on the Single Market – Proposal for a legislative initiative on cross-border activities of associations, which will focus on harmonising rules for associations across the EU. As it stands now, each Member State sets its rules regarding the establishment, the constitutive elements of associations, governance, and administrative costs. According to the Impact Assessment, the disparities impede associations’ activities across borders in the single market and do not fully foster the protection and promotion of EU values. The consultation is open until 28 October. The proposal for a Directive should be adopted in Q2 2023.
The initiative stems from the resolution of the European Parliament of 17 February 2022 with recommendations to the Commission on a statute for European cross-border associations and non-profit organisations. In this resolution, the European Parliament calls for non-profit organisations to be put on equal footing with commercial undertakings and economic interest groups. This includes, in particular: harmonisation of the public benefit status within the Union, non-discrimination based on the place of establishment of the organisation or against any group or individual on any ground. The resolution furthermore calls for considering adopting a proposal to facilitate the reciprocal recognition of public benefit tax-exempt organisations in every Member State.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
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