SGI Europe - Activity Report 2025

Activity Report

SGI Europe in 2024

START

2024 in Review

Social Affairs Board

Sustainability Board

Internal Market Board

Projects

Annexes (including sections and presidential team)

2024 in Review

SGI Europe Activities in the context of the EU elections

SGI Day on 17 June 2024, ‘The Green Single Market as a lever for a Sustainable Competitiveness’

SGI Europe in the Clean Transition Dialogues

Contributions to the Letta report on the Future of the EU Single Market

2024 in Review

Preparation of the SGI Manifesto 2024-2029, on the basis of the Opinion on the Strategic Priorities

Activities in the context of the Belgianand Hungarian Presidencies of the EU

Adoption of 23 opinions, position papers and/or joint letters

Publication of 17 press releases and 44 weekly Newsflashes

Tripartite Social Summit, 21 March

Tripartite Social Summit, 21 March

Tripartite Social Summit, 21 March

Tripartite Social Summit, 21 March

Tripartite Social Summit, 21 March

Tripartite Social Summit, 21 March

Tripartite Social Summit, 21 March

Social Affairs Board

Michael DE GOLS

Jeanette GRENFORS

Vice-Chair (Benelux)

Chair (Sweden)

Urban SIEBERTS

Elvira GENTILE

Vice-Chair (Germany)

Vice-Chair (Italy)

Board meetings: 5 February, 18 March, 23 April, 18 June, 24 September, 26 November

Social Affairs Board

Main Activities

Inputs to the European Commission to the hearings and consultations of the EU Social partners on:

• 21 February: Hearing on the future Commission Action plan to address labour and Skills shortages
• 22 May: Hearing on the Council Recommendation on fair transitions towards climate neutrality
• 25 June: First stage consultation on a possible action in the area of telework and workers’ right to disconnect
• Opinion: Proposal of the Commission to take action to improve the quality of traineeships

Social Partners conferences

• 14 March: Social Partner conference on Youth Employment
• 23 May: Final Conference on the Implementation of the Framework Agreement on Digitalisation and Support for social Dialogue

• Negotiation and adoption of the “Tripartite Declaration for a Thriving European Social Dialogue” on 31 January during the Val Duchesse Social Partner Summit organised by the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the Council.
• Negotiation and adoption of the “La Hulpe declaration” during the La Hulpe Social Summit of 15 April 2024 organised by the Belgian Presidency of the Council, which aims to set the future social agenda for the 2024-2029 period and reaffirm the European pillar of social rights as the guiding compass for EU social policy in the coming years.
• Negotiation of the Pact for social dialogue between the EU Social Partners, with plenary sessions on 20 November 2024 and 5 December 2024, resulting in the official signature of the Pact for social dialogue on 5 March 2025.

• Preparations of SGI Europe key messages and speaking points for the Tripartite Social Summits of 20 March and 16 October and informal EPSCO of 10-12 January (Belgium) and 9-10 October (Hungary)

Macroeconomics Task Force

Jan DOMANSKI

Tor HATLEVOLL

Chair (Sweden)

Vice-Chair (Poland)

Reinhold RICKES

Cosimo PACCIANI

Vice-Chair (Italy)

Vice-Chair (Germany)

Task force meetings: 21 February, 7 October, 10 December

Main Activities

• Participation in the meetings of the macroeconomic dialogue (technical level) on 17 February and 9 October on “Strengthening the economic base: challenges and opportunities” and “Demographic challenges and the impact on competitiveness”
• Participation and definition of key messages for the Macroeconomic Dialogue (political Level) on 13 May and 4 November
• Participation in the social partners’ consultation on the annual sustainable growth survey on 26 September
• Definition and lobby for SGI Europe’s key messages for the Social partners consultation on the European Semester

Social Protection Task Force

Johannes ISAKSSON

Klaus STÜRMER

Chair (Germany)

Vice-Chair (Sweden)

Task force meetings: 19 June, 4 December

Main Activities

• Drafting of the comments of the employers on the joint long-term care report of the SPC and the European Commission
• Preparation of the employers’ comments on the 2024 Social Protection Committee’s Pension Adequacy Report
• Drafting of the Position paper: SGI Europe’s comments on the Financial Data Access Regulation (FIDA)
• Preparation of the First Draft for the position paper of SGI Europe regarding the review of the IORP II- Directive planned 2025

Health & Safety Task Force

VET and Education Task Force

Pawel LANGOWSKI

Rossitsa STELIYANOVA

Chair (Poland)

Chair (Bulgaria)

Task force meeting: 13 November

Task force meeting: 13 November

Main Activities

Main Activities

• Follow-up of the work of the Advisory committee on health and safety on the revision of the Workplace directive and on the Display screen equipment directive.
• Preparation of the input to the Employer’s group working party on Mental Health at Work in the context of the Commission’s communication for a comprehensive approach to Mental health.
• Support and contribution to the first stage response of SGI Europe to the social partners consultation on telework and right to disconnect.

• Contribute to the SGI Europe promotion of Apprenticeships systems in the context of the European Alliance for Apprenticeship (EAfA). • Drafting of the SGI Europe opinion on the Commission’s proposal for a directive on improving and enforcing working conditions of trainees and combating regular employment relationships disguised as traineeships. • Support for SGI Europe representatives in the Advisory committee on education and training and participating to the meeting of Directors General for Vocational Training.

Sustainability Board

Stefan CHAYKOV

Alain TACCOEN

Vice-Chair (Bulgaria)

Chair (France)

Sebastian GONET

Lina FURCH

Vice-Chair (Germany)

Vice-Chair (Poland)

Board meetings: 15 February (jointly with the Internal Market Board), 21 September

Sustainability Board

Board meetings:

• 1st Board Meeting on 22 February:
• Session 1: "The EU’s Climate Target for 2040 – What Lies Ahead?", with Terhi Lehtonen, Coordinator for Inter-Institutional Relations, DG CLIMA, with a focus on the role of SGIs in achieving climate neutrality
• Session 2: "Green Reindustrialisation and the Role of SGIs – A Strategic Discussion", with Stavroula Demetriades, Senior Research Manager, Eurofound
• 2nd Board Meeting on 27 September (in Paris, hosted by EDF, jointly with the Internal Market Board):
• Topic: "Strengthening SGIs in the Circular Single Market and the Circular Economy", with Antonina Cipollone, Head of Unit, Evaluation & Impact Assessment, Regulatory Scrutiny Board Secretariat, Secretariat-General, European Commission
• 3rd Board Meeting on 26 November:
• Topic: "A new way forward to realise the EU Green Deal under the Climate Law for 2040" (complemented by an extraordinary Board Meeting on 12 December)

Communications Task Force

Martine ALLAIRE

Maciej LEGUTKO

Chair (France)

Vice-Chair (Poland)

Wouter GEKIERE

Vice-Chair (EBU)

• Promote the importance of investment and the transformation of networks
• Cyber Resilience Act and Cyber Solidarity Act
• AI Regulation
• Contribution to the Sustainability Board on the Opinion paper- Green Re-industrialisation
• Contribution to the Clean Transition Dialogues, especially on Critical Raw Materials

Energy Task Force

Elmar THYEN

Eleonora CAPACCIOLI

Chair (Germany)

Vice-Chair (Italy)

Philippe CLAVEL

Kristian DAHL-LARSEN

Vice-Chair (Norway)

Vice-Chair (France)

Task force meetings: 22 March, 20 June, 21 November

• Clean Transition Dialogues on 26 February: Meeting on Infrastructure attended by Valeria Ronzitti, Secretary General of SGI Europe and chaired by Maros Sefcovic, European Commission Executive Vice-President
• Contribution to the SGI Europe EU Green Reindustrialisation opinion paper

Environment Task Force

Bernardo PICCIOLI

Janusz KARWOT

Chair (Italy)

Vice-Chair (Poland)

Task force meetings: 5 March, 11 June and 15 October

• 5 March: Exchange of views on EU Climate Targets and Circular Economy, EU Taxonomy updates, PPWR updates on Trilogues, Waste Framework Directive lobby steps
• 4 May: Joint Call by FEAD, CEWEP and SGI Europe to remain Waste to Energy criteria in guidelines list in the Renewable Energy Directive
• 11 June: Discussion on Carbon Caputre and Storage and Usage (CCS and CCU) with the Water Task force
• 15 October: Structural discussion on EU Waste policy priorities for 2025, with William Neale, Advisor on Circular Economy at Directorate B: Circular Economy & Green Growth, Directorate-General for Environment (DG Envi), followed by an on-site visit of the Brussels Waste to Energy Plant

Transport Task Force

Martin SCHÄFER

Mihai CHICA

Vice-Chair (Germany)

Chair (France)

Joanna POPIOLEK

Joanna POPIOLEK

Vice-Chair (Poland)

Vice-Chair (Poland)

Task force meetings: 12 March, 8 April, 12 June and 7 November (in Köln)

• Meetings:
• 12 March: Updates from WG on Urban Mobility, Greening Fright Package, Driving License Directive, TEN-T
• 8 April: Clean Transition Dialogue Meeting on Clean Mobility
• 12 June: Meeting with Guest Speaker Ms. Ellen Durst, Social Dialogue Correspondent of DG MOVE
• 7 November: Meeting in Cologne, on the invitation from Stadtwerke Köln and hosted by Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln (HGK) AG and Kölner Verkehrs Betriebe (KVB) with Guest Speaker Mr. Jose Garcia, Sr Advisor for Ports at DG MOVE
• Main Activities:
• Contribution to the SGI Europe EU Green Reindustrialisation opinion paper

Water Task Force

Michele FALCONE

Hans de GROENE

Chair (Italy)

Vice-Chair (The Netherlands)

Davide SCAGLIONE

Borislav VELIKOV

General Rapporteur (Italy)

Vice-Chair (Bulgaria)

Task force meetings: 26 March, 25 June and 5 November

• Meetings:
• 26 March: Strategic discussions on EU Water Resilience with Veronica Manfredi, Director for Zero Pollution and Green Cities, DG ENVI
• 25 June: Discussion on Water Resilience and the Impact on groundwater in CCU and CCS
• 5 November: Strategic discussion on EU priority for 2025 and EU Water Resilience with Elena Montani, Team Leader for Clean Water Services - Marine Environment and Clean Water Services, DG ENVI
• Other activities:
• 23 January: Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive - Trilogue paper
• 12 March: Joint paper with Eureau, APE, Water Europe, COPA COGECA and more signed petition to call for a EU Water Resilience framework
• Meeting with EU Stakeholders: Eureau, APE and Eurocities and CEMR- discussion on Water Resilience

Internal Market Board

Nadine FISCHER

Chair (Germany)

Luigi DEL GIACCO

Benjamin GALLEPE

Vice-Chair (France)

Vice-Chair (Italy)

Meetings of the board: 30 April, 7 June (extraordinary meeting on competitiveness), 27 September (with the Sustainability Board), 30 October (extraordinary meeting on the Clean Industrial Deal), 20 November

Internal Market Board

Main activities

Circular Single Market

• Preparation of the contribution to the Letta report, on the basis of the hearing organized on 7 December 2023.
• Membership survey on public procurement.
• Meetings with DG GROW and the Secretariat General of the Commission on SGI Europe’s priorities for the revision of the Directives on public procurement.
• Preparation of a Position Paper and consultation response on public procurement, published in March 2025.
• Setting up of dialogue between public banks and other investors with SGIs to establish the requirements for a product-based approach to creating a Circular Single Market.

Clean Industrial Deal

• Preparation of Opinion on ‘SGIs for a Sustainable European Competitiveness’, published in June.
• Membership survey on administrative burden.
• Meetings with the Secretariat General of the Commission on reducing administrative burden for SGIs, the SME definition, and the Competitiveness Compass.
• Preparation of Opinion on ‘SGIs in the Clean Industrial Deal’, published in December.
• Participation of GS Valeria Ronzitti in the work of the Fit for Future Platform, including co-rapporteurship of the opinion on "Actions/methodology to avoid the build-up of unnecessary reporting obligations”, published in October.

Circular Single Market

• Preparation of the contribution to the Letta report, on the basis of the hearing organized on 7 December 2023.
• Membership survey on public procurement.
• Meetings with DG GROW and the Secretariat General of the Commission on SGI Europe’s priorities for the revision of the Directives on public procurement.
• Preparation of a Position Paper and consultation response on public procurement, published in March 2025.
• Setting up of dialogue between public banks and other investors with SGIs to establish the requirements for a product-based approach to creating a Circular Single Market.

Projects

Accessible Climate-Conscious Essential Services (A.C.C.E.S.)

Labour INT 3

Social Dialogue in Circular Economy (with Employers of Poland)

Finance for the European Pillar of Social Rights (Finance4EPSR)

Annexes

National sections and sectoral federations

Presidential Team

Members of SGI Europe's National Sections

General Secretariat

SGI Europe Rue des Deux Eglises, 26 boîte 5 BE-1000 BruxellesBelgium

Photos: SGI Europe, European Union

Informal EPSCO of the Belgian presidency of the EU, 10-12 January

La Hulpe Social Summit, 15-16 April

Val Duchesse Social Partners' Summit, 31 January

Informal EPSCO of the Belgian presidency of the EU, 10-12 January

La Hulpe Social Summit, 15-16 April

Val Duchesse Social Partners' Summit, 31 January

Informal EPSCO of the Belgian presidency of the EU, 10-12 January

La Hulpe Social Summit, 15-16 April

La Hulpe Social Summit, 15-16 April

La Hulpe Social Summit, 15-16 April

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