Increasing Sustainability and Resilience in Supply Chains

Globalisation has changed trade patterns and dynamics, supply chains and production networks, allowing EU companies to integrate into global supply chains and create jobs. However, these changes also pose social, economic and environmental challenges, such as productivity divergence, labour market effects, working conditions and lack of strategic security of supply. There is a need to conceptualise these patterns in the light of the EU’s long-term policy priorities of social resilience and competitive sustainability, and to analyse the impact of different trade patterns on EU value added, the labour market, income inequalities, decent work and social cohesion.

Against this background, the EU-funded projects TWIN SEEDS, RETHINK-GSC and ReSChape have been designed to investigate how to enhance the social and environmental sustainability of resilient supply chains. They will also develop policy scenarios and recommendations to support supply chains and global supply chains in fair, inclusive and sustainable trade patterns.

The combination of the three projects will apply multi-disciplinary methodologies and address multi-dimensional aspects, developing cross-sectoral and forward-looking responses, involving external stakeholders and experts, including European social partners, regional and national authorities, and international trade, labour market and social policy experts.

Agenda

• Global value chains’ restructuring: recent trends and impacts on EU countries and regions | TWIN-SEEDS
  Speaker: Roberta Capello, Politecnico di Milano
• Assessing the resilience of European companies in the face of global supply chain challenges | RETHINK-GSC
  Speaker: Márta Bisztray, KRTK – Institute of Economics
• Supplier development strategies for social sustainability: evidence from European companies | ReSChape
  Speaker: Dimitra Kalaitzi, Aston University
• Q & A