Social dialogue within the green transition

Key points

The EESC:

• provides this exploratory opinion upon request by the Czech EU Presidency as part of the assessment of the social dimension of the European Green Deal, and in particular the role of social dialogue.

• welcomes the strong and ambitious climate policy framework set up within the European Green Deal, and supported by the related legislative measures, but it also stresses that, in spite of all the positive declarations, its social dimension is still underdeveloped.

• believes that existing initiatives to address the social challenges of the green transformation have remained fragmented. The Just Transition Mechanism is limited and addresses a small part of the transition process. The proposed Social Climate Fund will have a limited scope and purpose, and above all balance the regressive distributional effects of a planned ETS2 for transport and buildings (see in particular the EESC opinion on the Social Climate Fund). While the EESC welcomes the Council Recommendation on ensuring a fair transition towards climate neutrality, it also notes that this non-binding recommendation does not offer the comprehensive policy platform that the EU needs to deal with the impacts of the transition on affected workers, regions and vulnerable individuals.

• stresses that the EU needs to have a strong framework to secure a level playing field for managing the transition. Such a robust EU just transition framework should, among other things, address the anticipation and management of change in the green transformation, via meaningful participation of workers, companies and citizens' involvement.
• proposes a systematic mapping of the functioning of social dialogue at Member State level, and further comparative studies are necessary to explore the role of social dialogue in National Energy and Climate Plans, such as in NRRPs and believes that social dialogue should be an integral part of the policies set up in order to reach 2050 climate policy targets, including NECPs, NRRPs and just transition plans.