Together with employers’ organisations and the European Commission, the ETUC has today signed a pact to strengthen the role of social partners in shaping the labour market, employment, and social policies.
As part of the Pact, the Commission commits to support social dialogue, at all levels, politically, financially and administratively, in a sustained way and by promoting capacity building of national social partners.
The agreement commits to joint work to build European social dialogue upon strong foundations by:
- Ensuring political, financial and administrative support for social partners, including through capacity building initiatives
- Strengthening the pathway to implement social partner agreements via EU law
- Ensuring that social partners are meaningfully consulted on the Commission Work Programme
- Establishing a social dialogue envoy
Esther Lynch, ETUC General Secretary, said:
“Nowhere in the world is there a stronger culture, stronger norms, practice and rules on social dialogue. This is the European way and this is our strength.
“We have an old saying in our part of the world: ‘prevention is better than cure’. When unions and employers identify issues and implement solutions through dialogue, before problems are allowed to build up and spill over, this is exactly what we are doing.
“We are all feeling the turbulent winds of a changing world, but we choose to commit to what we know has delivered for us: our European tradition of social dialogue, of compromise and of building social consensus.
“There is no system more efficient and compatible with our democratic values.”
Claes-Mikael Ståhl, Deputy General Secretary of the ETUC, said:
“This is the outcome of tough negotiations, with everyone around the table bringing a constructive attitude.
“Going forward, facing our collective challenges, let’s carry forward this constructive attitude. We have a solid foundation to build on. We will be part of the solution.”
