On Monday 28 October, Eurogas, the European association representing companies in the gas sector such as Shell and TotalEnergies, rejected “a critical agreement reached with EPSU [European Public Services Union] and industriAll Europe to secure a Just Transition for gas industry workers”, EPSU said in a statement.
The ‘Just Transition’ agreement aimed to develop “a sector-specific response to the challenges posed by the transformation of the gas industry during Europe’s transition towards net-zero. Eurogas’s regrettable decision to reject the agreement denies gas workers a Just Transition and raises questions on their commitment to a green and fair transition”, stresses EPSU, which reiterates the “need for EU regulatory action to ensure a framework for a fair transformation”.
“Companies are already restructuring and jobs are being lost. This agreement was necessary to provide workers with measures that would protect them during the transition. Now all hope of protection is gone”, commented industriALL.
The framework agreement was intended to provide guarantees for retraining and job protection, in anticipation of redundancies linked to the move away from fossil fuels. The negotiations funded by the European Commission began in mid-2023 and the talks have gone through five rounds.
This framework would have been “legally binding and would have been the first continent-wide agreement between workers and fossil fuel companies focused on decarbonising the energy system”, as the Financial Times also points out.
Link to the draft agreement: https://aeur.eu/f/e22 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)