6 November 2026
On 2 November 2026, SGI Europe General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti joined a discussion organised by the IE Competitiveness Hub in Brussels on the forthcoming EU Right to Stay strategy.
Freedom of movement is only meaningful when people also have a genuine freedom to remain and thrive in the place they call home. Yet many Europeans feel compelled to leave their communities because they cannot access affordable, accessible and high-quality Services of General Interest (SGIs), quality employment or reliable infrastructure.
During the discussion, SGI Europe stressed that SGIs must be recognised as competitive infrastructure. Healthcare, education, transport, energy, water and digital connectivity enable employers to recruit, workers to participate in the labour market, enterprises to invest and territories to remain viable.
SGI Europe believes that the forthcoming strategy should meet three essential tests. First, it must take a horizontal approach, connecting the services and policies that people experience as part of a single territorial ecosystem. Second, it must support long-term investment and effective delivery through workable EU funding, State aid and public procurement rules. Third, it must strengthen workforce and administrative capacity by involving social partners, SGI providers and territorial authorities throughout its development and implementation.
Europe cannot promise a Right to Stay while leaving local authorities and service providers without the means to deliver it. The objective must be to give people a genuine choice and every territory the capacity to adapt.
Learn more about the Coalition for the Freedom to Stay.
Contact: Benoit Cassorla
On 4 November, SGI Europe Vice-President Yuri Santagostino participated in the Ecomondo panel “Closing the loop in waste management: the new challenges of the Circular Economy Act” in Rimini, presenting the contribution of services of general interest to Europe’s circular transition.
The intervention highlighted that circularity depends on interconnected essential services. Waste operators collect, sort, recycle and recover materials; water utilities recover resources from wastewater; energy networks integrate recovered heat and biomethane; Transport, postal services and digital infrastructure support shared mobility, reuse, repair and traceability.
These activities already deliver solutions. However, recovering resources does not automatically secure their return to the economy. Insufficient demand, fragmented rules and uncertainties over quality, supply and price continue to constrain markets for secondary raw materials.
SGI Europe therefore calls for the forthcoming Circular Economy Act to create predictable demand through mandatory minimum recycled-content requirements in selected products. Harmonised End-of-Waste criteria, common technical standards and mutual recognition should enable recovered materials meeting environmental and quality requirements to circulate across the Single Market.
The legislation should also address the entire value chain. Durable, repairable and recyclable products, pollution prevention at source, effective application of the polluter-pays principle and strong extended producer responsibility are essential to ensuring safe resource recovery and financing circular systems.
Mr. Santagostino also stressed the territorial dimension. EU legislation and funding must support municipalities and regions in developing circular infrastructure, preventing investment from concentrating only in wealthier territories.
For SGI Europe, recognising and financing these interconnected services would strengthen competitiveness, resource security and cohesion. It would also support the Freedom to Stay: enabling people to live, work and prosper where they choose, with essential services, investment, skills and quality employment sustained within their communities.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On 5 November, SGI Europe General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti participated in a stakeholder dialogue on the proposed Public Procurement Act (PPA), organised by the European Commission. The exchange brought together selected public buyers with Commission representatives to discuss the future EU public procurement framework.
The morning session, chaired by Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné, focused on simplification and strategic procurement, including how procurement rules can support Europe's competitiveness, resilience and broader policy objectives. In the afternoon, participants engaged in a technical exchange with DG GROW on simplification and procedural flexibility, the European Digital Marketplace and the practical implementation of strategic objectives.
SGI Europe welcomed the Commission's ambition to simplify procurement, while stressing that simplification must translate into reduced administrative burdens and greater flexibility in practice. In particular, it called for more flexible negotiation procedures, framework agreements adapted to long-term investment needs, and proportionate publication requirements that avoid unnecessary duplication.
SGI Europe also underlined the importance of preserving the specific flexibilities of utilities and concessions within the single rulebook, ensuring legal certainty and avoiding additional regulatory complexity. It emphasised that strategic objectives must reflect market realities, including the availability and cost of supplies. Public buyers should also retain discretion over how to ensure quality, while European preference requirements should remain workable and allow for proportionate exemptions where necessary to avoid disproportionate costs, delays or risks to the continuity of services.
Finally, SGI Europe highlighted the need for realistic implementation deadlines, practical guidance and meaningful stakeholder consultation to ensure that new requirements can be implemented effectively without creating additional burdens.
Contact: Raquel Carro-Andollo
On 4 November, the European Commission adopted its Work Programme for 2027, entitled “European Union – standing up for one another”. It focuses on delivering, implementing and enforcing EU policies, with competitiveness, strategic independence, energy prices and regulatory simplification at the centre.
The Work Programme contains 23 key initiatives, including ten with a significant simplification dimension. It also identifies 24 pending proposals as priorities for adoption, while proposing 18 files for withdrawal and 14 acts for repeal. Initiatives relevant to providers of Services of General Interest include a post-2030 energy framework and simplification package, measures to accelerate permitting, and transport and digital simplification packages. In the social and territorial fields, the Commission plans a strategy on the “right to stay”, a housing simplification package, a European Care Deal and a Skills Guarantee. A European Water Initiative, European Heatwave Plan and review of the nature protection directives are also scheduled.
Priority proposals already under negotiation include the Public Procurement Act, the Emissions Trading System review, the European Grids package, the Affordable Housing Act, the Fair Labour Mobility package and the legislation for the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework. The Commission also published its second Overview Report on Simplification, Implementation and Enforcement.
SGI Europe will assess the implications of these initiatives for investment, affordability, workforce capacity, territorial cohesion and sustainable SGI provision. This analysis will guide SGI Europe’s engagement and help align its 2027 priorities with the Commission’s agenda.
Contact: Maxime Staelens
On 5 November, the European Commission published its new Education and Skills Package, setting out measures to address declining basic skills, teacher shortages, vocational education and training, and the impact of artificial intelligence on education.
A central element is the proposal for a Council Recommendation on an attractive teaching profession: the EU Teachers Agenda. It calls on Member States to improve recruitment and retention, assess teachers’ salaries, employment conditions and workloads, strengthen career development and professional learning, and ensure that AI supports professional judgement and remains under meaningful human oversight. The proposal covers teachers, early childhood educators, VET teachers and, where relevant, trainers.
SGI Europe welcomes the proposal’s recognition of sustained investment, workforce planning, social dialogue and cooperation between VET providers and enterprises. Importantly, the recommendations are framed with reference to national education systems, national law and practice, and the autonomy of social partners.
Nevertheless, the Council negotiations must ensure that EU action does not encroach on national competence for pay, working time and employment status, or fragment established public-sector bargaining frameworks. European action should concentrate on investment, evidence, cooperation and capacity-building.
The package also proposes a Council Recommendation on reversing the decline in literacy, mathematics, science, digital and citizenship skills. A new European VET Strategy will promote more flexible training, stronger business-provider partnerships and greater learning mobility. Further initiatives address European school cooperation, teacher academies and trusted digital education infrastructure.
SGI Europe will examine the proposals and contribute to the forthcoming discussions with EU institutions and social partners.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
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