(8 October 2009) The social dialogue committee agreed to seek involvement in the work being done by the European Commission on the development of the energy road maps 2050. The energy road maps consider the long-term future of Europe’s energy system. The importance of considering the longer term strategy was already raised in the EPSU Contribution to the Commission’s Green Paper. The social dimension is to be an important aspect of this project.
The committee further discussed the project on just transition employment principles, the workshop organized on this issue 10 December in Budapest. Several members on both sides stressed the importance of a forward looking approach that will assist the social partners in identifying possible new services, jobs and the competencies for these. An intensive discussion took place on the introduction of smart meters, the possible job losses, impact on different groups of workers, new services, responsibilities of Distribution System Operators, smart grids and the link with the future of Europe’s energy system. The committee agreed to work together on assessing the impact of the introduction of smart meters and the approaches that are found to anticipate and manage the changes.
Other issues on the agenda:
The social partners agreed to promote the Corporate Social Responsibility statement with their affiliated organisations. They will also consider jointly the sectoral part of the European Commission study on the Future of Jobs and Skills. For the next meeting in December, the committee will monitor the use that has been given to the Demographic Change toolkit. Information was provided on the 2nd Social Forum of the Energy Community with the social partners agreeing that the national social action plans need to be implemented with clear targets and within a transparent time frame. The first phase of consultation on the Directive on Electro-magnetic fields is closed and the social partners are expecting the 2nd phase of consultation to start. The representative of the European Commission provided information on the progress that is made regarding the Communication on the Sectoral Social Dialogue to which the electricity social dialogue committee contributed. The Commission will stress the autonomy of the social partners as the committee argued and will furthermore consider a number of issues to make the committees function better.
The EPSU Delegation was composed of Steve Bloomfield, Unison; Jan Ruden, SEKO, Susanne Senica, Verdi; Oskar van Rijswijk, AbvaKabo, Reszo Gal, VDszsz; Bruno Costantini, FLAEI, Nicola Rosu and Daniela Pojoga, Univers; Belinda Perry, ESBOA. The EPSU Deputy General Secretary participated in the meeting, 7 October 2009, Brussels
- Log in to post comments