New challenges face the European social dialogue, which undergone a series of changes since 1985 when bipartite dialogue at EU level began. One of the most important developments was certainly the accession of 12 new Member States in 2004 and in 2007. In fact, while the countries which joined the European Union in the 1970s and 1980s only had the legislative acquis communautaire to incorporate into their national legislation, the new wave of Member States must also adapt to the acquis the social dialogue - at both cross-industry and sectoral levels. This challenge is compounded by the inherent weakness of structures for bilateral dialogue in most of these countries, in addition to a number of other problems including low and frequently declining rates of unionisation, poor levels of recruitment amongst employers' organisations, fragmentation of the employer and trade union organisations in some cases, and limited financial resources against the backdrop of profound economic change.

To tackle these problems, trade unions confederations based in these new EU Member States (namely Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania Slovakia and Slovenia) are given the opportunity to organise national seminars on issues related to the European social dialogue.

More specifically, the ETUC will provide a budget to run one-day national seminars for 22 participants (20 representatives of the national trade union organisations and 2 ETUC representatives).

The ETUC will cover the following costs: accommodation and subsistence (1 night and 2 meals), interpretation (in a language other than the national language, for foreign speakers), interpretation booths, a limited budget for translation of documents and local transport costs.


Interested trade unions should contact Ms Cinzia Sechi for further information.