The European social partners, the Commission and the Member States have a “common view” on competitiveness, growth and the need for quality jobs in the EU, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen summed up on 22 March after a new Tripartite Social Summit.
Focusing on the Commission’s proposals for European clean technology companies to stay in the global race (see EUROPE 13143/1) and the green skills needed to support this transition, the Tripartite Social Summit reached a “common understanding” that Europe “must accelerate the pace” and become “the cradle of clean technology” by simplifying the rules and funding companies.
In this transition, it is also important to recall the role of the social partners and social dialogue, as the social partners are best placed to match the aspirations of workers with the needs of business. The European Year of Skills is therefore very timely, agreed the various stakeholders.
BusinessEurope boss Fredrik Persson, however, expressed some concerns and reservations about the raft of legislation on the table to compete with the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including the text on easing subsidies for businesses, warning against a subsidy race.
Concerned about the decline in foreign direct investments in the EU and its increase in the US, he called on Member States to work especially on “better regulation and energy costs” with affordable sources of supply.
Subsidies to companies should be “carefully calibrated” and short-term, and “the effects on the internal market” should be monitored.
For her part, Esther Lynch, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), expects the Member States, in this planned discussion on business competitiveness, to send out a signal that it will be about “good jobs with good employment conditions and high wages”.
This signal is necessary “to look to the future with confidence”. It is also necessary to create the right ecosystem to develop this competitiveness, and this also involves “infrastructure, childcare services, transport”, she added. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)