NICOLAS SCHMIT
THIERRY BRETON
MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
JOBS AND SOCIAL RIGHTS
INTERNAL MARKET
ERT Jobs, Skills & Impact
Committee
@sonae.com
Dear
,
Thank you very much for your support to the Pact for Skills and your participation at the EU
Industry Days. Your personal involvement and the commitment of the ERT are very much
appreciated.
To address a challenge of this magnitude, the skills revolution requires a change of mindsets,
greater multi-stakeholder cooperation and a significant increase in demand-led investments, both
private and public. The importance of the role of industry, social partners and governments is
clear. It is a long-term challenge at which we can only succeed together.
The high-level roundtables addressing the up- and reskilling needs of each industrial ecosystem
have created good momentum. The last roundtables will take place before summer. We count
that all industrial ecosystems join the Pact for Sills with concrete commitments.
Skills are a top priority for the European Commission to foster the socio-economic recovery
from the COVID-19 pandemic and the long-term twin digital and green transitions. Significant
resources for up- and reskilling will be made available through the EU budget and
NextGenerationEU, in particular from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). To draw on
the resources from the RRF, Member States need to submit national recovery and resilience
plans to the European Commission by the end of April this year. Our services have participated
in several meetings with social partners, working groups of the Council, the Committee of the
Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee, as well as EU funding programmes’
committees to encourage the use of funding opportunities at all levels. They will continue to
promote the Pact for Skills in all relevant fora.
The proposal of the ERT to address the cross-sectoral dimension with a focus on reskilling and
mobility is very welcome. As you indicated, the proposed
end-to-end reskilling approach is still
nascent and lacks scale. To validate this concept further and identify clearly the pilot regions in
the countries you evoked - Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and possibly France - it would be crucial to
establish direct and close contact with relevant national and regional authorities, as well with the
activities of social partners and public employment services. Your project has the potential to
strengthen and increase the involvement of industries in the process of upskilling and reskilling
of the workforce in line with the needs of the labour market.
Under the Pact for Skills, the Commission will provide support services built on three pillars:
networking, knowledge and guidance (including on EU funding). Our services will also regularly
inform stakeholders about the timetable of the publication of the calls for proposals from the
relevant EU funding programmes, starting with ERASMUS+ in April.
Our services stand ready to provide you with operational information, should you find it useful.
Yours sincerely,
Nicolas Schmit
Thierry Breton