SGI Europe addresses the Social Europe Conference organised by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in Berlin

On Monday 6 November 2023, SGI Europe addressed the Social Europe Conference, organised in Berlin by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. On that occasion, General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti presented SGI Europe’s messages to strengthen the social dimension of the EU, especially in the run-up to the EU elections of 2024.

Addressing a panel focused on “Jointly Shaping Social Europe: Social partners’ demands”, Ms Ronzitti said:

“SGI Europe calls for putting the principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights at the centre of the upcoming elections. A renewed narrative is urgently needed with access to affordable, accessible and high-quality SGIs as an essential pre-condition for the EU's social and economic competitiveness. More than being enablers, SGIs are themselves engines for competitiveness and can create economic prospects.”

“The recognition of social investment with high economic returns in the review of the EU economic governance is a necessary pre-condition for a Social Europe. The upcoming jumbo ECOFIN-EPSCO meeting of March 2024 will be a key moment to assess the empirical evidence of social investments and reforms, and present the findings of the informal working group on social investment, in which social partners are directly involved.“

“A ‘Social Europe’ can also not exist without strong social partners and social dialogue. We now need to re-create the conditions for an effective social dialogue, with the support of the EU institutions. As the first Summit of Val Duchesse remains the Holy Grail of Social Dialogue, I call for the upcoming Val Duchesse II to be the start of a re-foundation of social dialogue. It will then be up to us – EU employers and trade unions – to live up to our responsibilities.”