EU SD and Capacity Building 2019-2020
The European social partner organisations at cross-industry level, ETUC, BusinessEurope, SGI Europe (formerly CEEP), SMEunited (formerly UEAPME), have resolved to continue their joint project activities and build upon the outcomes of the previous integrated projects. The Integrated Projects (IP) of the European Social Dialogue (EUSD) have provided the European social partners with an important tool to promote and reinforce the link between social dialogue at national and European level, as well as to address emerging issues which are of joint relevance.
In the past,the Integrated Projects have supported the implementation and follow-up of European social dialogue instruments, with activities which have been established as a cornerstone of how we can better link social dialogue at the European and national level. The IP also addressed the situation of social dialogue and collective bargaining at national level, as well as supporting a stronger role of the social partners in the European semester process.
An important issue which has emerged through previous joint activities in cluster seminars as well as in the context of the Subgroup of the Social Dialogue Committee is the capacity building needs of social partner organisations at national level. Addressing capacity building is a priority for the European social partners who have notably recently undertaken an activity to identify capacity building needs for social partners and social dialogue using the European Social Fund (ESF) in the framework of the IP 2016-2018 cycle. This issue is mainstreamed throughout the below mentioned activities.