Representatives from employers' and workers' organisations affiliated to the four European social partner organisations have received support in identifying what they need to do at the national level in order to strengthen their capacity to represent the views of their members in the European social dialogue. A first round of national seminars was organised in 10 new Member States (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) and in 2 candidate countries (Turkey and Croatia), during which social partner representatives had to formulate time limited action plans to be pursued either jointly or individually. These target organisations were then involved in a second round of national seminars in order to review and assess progress achieved in the implementation of their action plans, and to discuss how these could be carried forward.

The main objective of this second axis of the Integrated Project is to provide European social partners with material on the specific restructuring challenges in the 27 EU Member States so as to pursue their discussion on economic and social change and restructuring. Detailed national studies are compiled and discussed with local social partners during national seminars. These studies set out the main economic and social trends in each country, their situation in terms of restructuring and the involvement of social partners in this complex process, and a description of their industrial relations.

Between 2004 and 2006, 10 Member States (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus) were addressed and common issues of concern were presented in a final overview discussed by social partners in all EU Member States during a synthesis seminar held in Brussels in June 2006. Currently 10 “old” EU Member States (Austria, Denmark, United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, The Netherlands, Italy, France, Sweden and Spain) are been studied and national seminars have been held in each country. The remaining Member States (Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Finland, Romania and Bulgaria) will be covered in a subsequent phase in 2009.

The translation fund for texts negotiated through the EU social dialogue has been created to promote full implementation of EU social dialogue agreements throughout Europe, including in candidate countries. For practical reasons, the financial aspects of this joint fund are taken care of by ETUC on behalf of all EU social partners for 12 languages (Maltese, Spanish, French, Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Estonian, Greek, Portuguese, Hungarian, Turkish and Bulgarian) and by BUSINESSEUROPE for the remaining 11 languages (German, Italian, Danish, Slovenian, Slovakian, Polish, Dutch, Lithuanian, Latvian, Croatian and Romanian). To benefit from the fund, national social partners have to make a joint request for translation to either BUSINESSEUROPE or ETUC.

The fourth activity developed by the European social partners in the context of their Integrated Project is the running of two specific Resource Centres. Essentially, ETUC for the trade unions' side and BUSINESSEUROPE for the employers' side (in co-operation with UEAPME and CEEP) provide for information and assistance through resource centres on issues related to social dialogue.