A broad coalition of employers, trade unions, environmental and industry organisations organized a joint virtual briefing session to present their common set of demands for a Just Transition Framework.
Addressing the social gap in ‘Fit for 55’ Package
On Tuesday 7 December the Joint Transition Coalition co-hosted an event with MEPs from across the political spectrum to present their joint call for action for a Just Transition Framework built on:
- Mapping of employment impacts at company, regional and national levels to ensure effective skills intelligence and anticipation of change
- Policy support and exchanges of best practices: the extension of the Just Transition Platform to the scope of the European Green Deal.
- Transition planning and social dialogue, including negotiated transition plans at company, regional and sectoral levels, and strengthening of social dialogue through binding social conditionality on access to EU funds.
- Adequate resources for active labour market policies, including retraining and upskilling, through a dedicated fund for the mobility ecosystem.
The call for action addresses the social gap of the ‘Fit for 55’ Package for workers the automotive and mobility sectors, an eco-system that employs 16 million workers in Europe and is the backbone of industry in Europe.
Encouraging the exchange of best practices
Representing employers of the metal, engineering and technology-based (MET) industries, Ceemet Senior Policy Advisor Isabel Sobrino Maté dedicated her intervention to the importance of exchanging best practices.
By supporting the exchange of best practices:
- innovative solutions are spread faster, becoming a source of inspiration that can be tailored to a specific situation.
- opportunity is created for mutual learning at different levels.
Organising the exchange of best practices
Ms Sobrino Maté shed a light on the organisational side of exchange putting two platforms forward.
Social dialogue, at all levels, would be the best place to collect good practices and information on social partners’ involvement at local, regional and national level in dealing with the impact of the green transition on employment and skills in the automotive sector. A secondary effect would be the strengthening of social dialogue.
The Automotive Skills Alliance (ASA), the Pact for Skills for the automotive sector, is a good example of structural exchange with most of the members of the Just Transition Coalition being member of this Pact. Ms Sobrino Maté underlined that:
“The ASA facilitates, amongst others, the exchange of information and best practices on up-skilling and re-skilling policies put in place by the ‘automotive regions’ to manage the transformation of employment while smoothly moving into green jobs.”
Obtaining policy support for a just transition
Either way of the platform that is chosen, the Just Transition Coalition calls for policy support to, for example, identify possible tools and/or measures that are functioning at national, regional and/or local level on how to best anticipate and manage change in the automotive sector.
A well-functioning and structured exchange of information will be the basis on whether or not Europe’s mobility eco-system will be as powerful by 2055 as it is now.