EU Tripartite social summit to begin in Brussels
EU officials and representatives of European business and trade unions will convene today at the year’s second Tripartite Social Summit.
Today’s summit focuses on key issues including allocating funds in the Resilience and Recovery Facility and utilising the recovery fund to achieve the EU 2030 climate target. The summit will be dominated by COVID-19 recovery plans as the continent looks to return to economic growth.
The bloc’s ambitious climate plan will likely be the most contentious topic. Last week the European Parliament voted to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 60% of 1990 levels by 2030, which drew criticism from countries reliant on coal, such as Poland, and leading car manufacturers who blasted the cuts as unrealistic and detrimental to growth. Allotting funds towards electric charging infrastructure, renewable energy production and work transition schemes for workers in ‘dirty’ industries could garner support from holdout nations. Meanwhile, countries such as Denmark and Finland support a more assertive approach toward implementing cuts to gas emissions, arguing that such an approach is necessary to stabilise rising global temperatures. Expect negotiations over the final target to be particularly difficult in the short term as lawmakers seek consensus before a vote on the issue in December.
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