Béla Galgóczi
The climate policy package ‘Fit for 55’ launched by the European Commission on July 14th is ambitious and seems to put the European Union on track towards its 2030 climate-policy targets and pave the way for the 2050 net-zero-emissions goal. So far, so good.
But is Europe also socially fit for this package? Is it in line with the principle of ‘just transition’, widely shared across the union and the EU institutions? While previous efforts in this regard focused more on the employment, regional and industrial-policy aspects the main areas covered by the Just Transition Fund established under the European Green Deal this time the distributional features of just transition are on the table.
Esther Lynch
The right to join a trade union and to bargain collectively is recognised as a fundamental human right by numerous European and international charters and conventions. And yet union-busting is on the rise in Europe.
Over the last year, the European Trade Union Confederation has been receiving alarming reports of union rights violations of obstacles, victimisation and discrimination in a number of countries sometimes using the pandemic as a pretext. The ETUC is calling on the European institutions to take a stand and put an end to union-busting, by including measures in the proposed directive on adequate minimum wages to halt anti-union practices and to guarantee trade union access to workplaces and protection from victimisation.
04-02-2021 )
epa08524654 A banner reading ?RIP 1908-2020? hung at the entrance of a Karstadt department store during a demonstration in Tempelhofer Damm in Berlin, Germany, 03 July 2020.The Tempelhofer branch is one of the seven Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department stores that are to be closed in Berlin and Potsdam. According to media reports, the department store chain is to close 62 of its 172 stores permanently for economic reasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. EPA-EFE/HAYOUNG JEON