Updates

The Working session in Zagreb, 4-5 July 2022

 

The Working session in Zagreb was held in hybrid format on the 4^th and 5^th of July 2022 – both on-site in Zagreb, Croatia and on-line. Altogether there were 17 participants registered for the event, of which 14 participants took part on-site and 3 on-line. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss how the European Green Deal could/should be implemented and receive suggestions on the planned contents of the Guidelines, in order to develop the Guidelines to serve as a useful tool, matching the needs and expectations of the employees and employers of the metal sector. The workshop was moderated by Małgorzata Koziarek, an expert of the Insitute of Public Affairs, a project partner, and co-moderated by Mirosław Grzybek, representing the project leader.

The agenda focused on the topics to be addressed in the guidelines. The topics were presented by the 2 experts. In each session the presentation of relevant topics was combined with a discussion with participants who offered their suggestions and comments.

During the first day, the key points of the agenda included discussions on initial expectations from the guidelines, presentation, and discussion of topics related to EGD - goals and targets, the principles of just transition, and workers' involvement. Later there were discussions about the implementation of the EGD, its importance to the metal sector, and workers' involvement at different stages of just transition. Following the session, participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire prepared by the experts and provide their feedback on the implementation and perspectives of environment and climate-related measures in their enterprises, workers’ participation and communication areas and tools, and the proposed guideline content items.

On the second day, the 5^th of July 2022 there were presentations and discussions about ways how to harmonize economic and social targets to create a community of interests of employers and employees, a win-win situation should be sought. There were suggestions that the energy demand is going to grow and this needs to be taken into account, as meeting the demand from zero-or low-carbon sources is an unprecedented challenge. European states have already been experiencing steep increases in energy prices, and face the risk of rapidly growing poverty and social disparities. It was suggested that the EGD needs to be implemented in a coherent way, and the different aspects of the particular measures proposed need to be considered and weighted, as many solutions promoted under the EGD are not environmental or climate neutral by themselves.

Employee participation faces numerous barriers which have roots in the dialogue practice and culture of particular countries; employees should use all available opportunities to get involved, but employer practices should also change. In debates with employees, employers sometimes resort to economic blackmail, putting the security of jobs at stake. The question was raised whether employees can veto a transition process that is not just.

As part of the project, after the end of each working session, the participants took part in recording a video material on the challenges of the European Green Deal implementation in enterprises of the metal sector.