The REJEnerAXion project aims to analyse and strengthen the role of innovative industrial relations structures, including social dialogue, to respond in a socially fair and balanced way to the main challenges and opportunities offered by a clean-energy transition at national and European level.

The energy transition plays a key role to achieve the long-term objective of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. This radical transformation can create new economic opportunities with the development of new green jobs. At the same time, however, it will lead to major changes and adjustments with unavoidable (direct and indirect) jobs losses in sectors dependent on fossil-fuel energy production, with serious regional effects (for example, for coal and carbon-intensive regions).

For this reason the energy transition requires to be driven and managed in making sure it is a “just transition”, where no-one is left behind, as affirmed by the European Green Deal. The need of properly designed just transition policies is becoming even more important with the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to face the implications of the crisis of the energy sector caused by Coronavirus.

Industrial relations and social dialogue, therefore, can play a leading role to support and guide green energy transition at European, national, regional level, helping to promote economic growth and social equality in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal, also in the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility plans, in order to ensure a sustainable and inclusive recovery.

To achieve this goal, the project intends:

1. to study the transformations taking place in the energy sector oriented towards clean energy and sustainability and their impacts for working conditions and quality-of-work issues, employment structures, sectoral, territorial and regional, and socio-environmental levels;
2. to increase expertise on these topics of the social partners and concerned stakeholders through the analysis and exchange of experiences and best practices of industrial relations and social dialogue for a just energy transition at national and European level, identifying convergences and divergences, as well as drivers and barriers, in a number of very significant European Member States involved in the project;
3. to identify practical recommendations for addressing the challenges of the clean-energy transition for Europe and to strengthen the role and contribution of industrial relations systems and social dialogue for a just transition to green energy at national and European level.

The project will analyse these changes focusing on eight countries in order to compare experiences and trends from North, South, Central and Eastern Europe: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, to have a transnational dimension balanced between old and new member states and different industrial relations systems.

More information about the project can be found here: https://twitter.com/rejeneraxion?s=21&t=RoXYPUq2AufH02rTdX1UMw

To review the final conference: https://www.youtube.com/live/GTz3pakkJaU