The pursuit of competitiveness has regained new urgency in the EU policy agenda, as a necessary means for achieving the EU’s climate, digital and social goals but also for helping Europe safeguard its sovereignty and security. The Draghi report provided a policy blueprint in that direction and warned, among other things, that in pursuing competitiveness, Europe should preserve social inclusion, avoid the drawbacks of the US social model and learn from the mistakes of the period of hyperglobalisation. In January, the European Commission published its Competitiveness Compass where it lays out its priority actions for following up on the Draghi report recommendations. While ‘quality jobs’ and skills promotion are mentioned among the list of ‘enablers’ for pursuing higher competitiveness and decarbonisation, it is not always clear whether and if so, how its policy plans, including regulatory simplification, are equally plausible and likely to deliver synergies among economically, environmentally and socially sustainable competitiveness.

The theme of this year’s Benchmarking Working Europe is ‘Quality Jobs for Sustainable Competitiveness’. In reviewing recent developments in areas of strategic interest for the labour movement and of ETUI expertise, it explores whether the emerging policy agenda and the existing EU policy frameworks within which it will be implemented are likely to balance different dimensions of sustainability, while it highlights related economic and political risks.


Programme

09.30 – 10.00 Registration and welcome coffee

10.00 – 10.15 Welcome
Bart Vanhercke, Director of the ETUI Research Department
Judith Vorbach, Head of Brussels Office, Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (AK EUROPA)

10.15 – 11.15 Key messages from Benchmarking Working Europe 2025 by the editors
Agnieszka Piasna, ETUI Senior Researcher and Sotiria Theodoropoulou, Head of the “European economic, employment and social policies” unit at the ETUI

Q&A with the editors and authors

11.15 – 11.45 Coffee break

11.45 – 13.00 Political roundtable with
Isabelle Schömann, Deputy General Secretary ETUC
Mario Nava, Director-General, DG Employment and Social Affairs, European Commission
Evelyn Regner, MEP, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament
Thérèse de Liedekerke, Deputy Director General of BusinessEurope

Moderator: Bart Vanhercke, Director of the ETUI Research Department

13.00 Lunch