The European social partners agreed, at the Tripartite Social Summit in Brussels on Wednesday 19 October, on the challenges currently facing EU workers and businesses, from workers finding it increasingly difficult to pay energy bills and whose wages are falling, to energy-intensive businesses that may have to relocate elsewhere in the world, or smaller companies forced out of business.
Meeting in Brussels ahead of a European summit on energy prices, Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and Marcus J. Beyrer, Director General of BusinessEurope, delivered a joint message to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and to the Czech Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, to be relayed to the other 26 European leaders.
The two leaders welcomed the Commission’s latest proposals to address prices and prepare for a more structural reform of the electricity market (see EUROPE 13045/1). In particular, the ETUC welcomed the proposed tax on energy companies’ super-profits and the discussion on price caps.
According to BusinessEurope, “if well designed, temporary EU-wide ‘price cap’ measures, such as decoupling electricity and gas prices” would in fact help to lower bills without reducing incentives to save energy and improve energy efficiency.
But the two leaders called on EU leaders to go further. For the ETUC, more action is needed on social measures, especially against the fall in wages, a movement that had already begun during the pandemic and which is being exacerbated by current inflation.
While the directive on adequate minimum wages is a “fundamental instrument” to address this issue with its call for the strengthening of collective bargaining, it lacks a broader dimension “and close to what was done during the pandemic” with the SURE instrument, added the ETUC General Secretary.
“We need a new SURE, maybe with a new name, a new field”, which is not only dedicated to unemployment, “but we need it immediately”, added Luca Visentini.
For the Director General of BusinessEurope, the EU can go further than adjusting the EU’s State aid Temporary Crisis Framework, which is a good thing, while maintaining a level playing field and the integrity of the Internal Market.
As far as labour markets are concerned, the main challenge ahead “is to respond in parallel to the ongoing need to improve skills matching and the impact of the energy crisis on employment”, said the BusinessEurope director-general, who urged leaders to realise that the very foundations of the EU’s wealth are now under threat.
Also present at the Tripartite Social Summit, representatives of services of general interest in the EU also called for “the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework to be extended beyond 2022, and for as long as necessary, and for it to be widened to support all enterprises”, said the SGI Europe Secretary General, Valeria Ronzitti.
“SGI Europe’s members, who provide essential services to our daily lives, are caught in the crossfire of rising energy and commodity prices, labour shortages and the increasing difficulty for many citizens and businesses to pay their bills. These challenges put many SGI companies on the verge of insolvency”, commented the Secretary General. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)