Work on the draft strategic agenda for the period 2024-2029 is intensifying at the level of the Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper), with a view to its adoption at the European Council meeting on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 June. A version dated Friday 21 June shows the intention of EU countries to accentuate references to climate objectives.
The introductory section of the draft strategic agenda recalls that the EU has set itself ambitious climate objectives and established a legislative framework to achieve them.
“We will strengthen our competitiveness and become the first climate-neutral continent by making a success of the climate and digital transitions, leaving no one behind”, stress the drafters in a sentence added to the first version of the strategic agenda to have been circulated (see EUROPE 13432/1). They emphasise the economic opportunity represented by the climate transition, stressing that the EU must become “a world leader in green and digital industries and technologies”, a goal that will open up new markets and create highly skilled jobs.
A more explicit reference to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) has also been included. It will have to reflect the priorities set out in the strategic agenda in order to be able to “provide European responses to European challenges”. The importance of “working on new own resources” for the EU budget was added.
The revised version of the Strategic Agenda maintains the three main axes identified: a free and democratic Europe; a strong and secure Europe; and a prosperous and competitive Europe.
Certain passages on these themes have been clarified. A paragraph stresses that, a few weeks before the NATO summit in Washington, the strengthening of European defence and security policies will be carried out “in cooperation” with the Alliance and without prejudice to the specific policies pursued by certain EU Member States.
See the revised draft strategic agenda: https://aeur.eu/f/csj
European trade unions see ‘social’ language as too weak
The General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Esther Lynch, deplores the weak language given to the social dimension in the draft agenda, in a letter sent on 22 June to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
The ETUC is concerned that the text under discussion “still does not include the necessary focus on the improvement of the situation for working people, their families and communities”. It calls on the European Council to “include in the next Strategic Agenda the clear objective to deliver quality jobs in every sector and in every region, including by supporting collective bargaining and improving working conditions”. It is “also of high importance to ensure that the European Union continues to advance towards the full implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights”, adds the confederation.
According to several sources, the comments made by certain delegations with a view to enriching the social dimension of the future strategic agenda were not accepted. Several delegations would like to stress the importance of improving working conditions. Other countries have put forward references to fair or sustainable mobility, which have not been taken up either.
See the CES letter: https://aeur.eu/f/csl (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Solenn Paulic)