Seminar on social partners’ involvement in the european economic governance process and the semester, 15 May 2017, Brussels, Belgium
Background
Social dialogue can be a driving force for successful and fair policy-making. Timely and meaningful involvement of social partners throughout the European semester is key to improve engagement in the design of policies/reforms thereby facilitating their successful implementation in a way that balances the interests of workers and employers.
The involvement of the social partners in the European Semester at EU level has improved via the regular exchanges between the social partners and the EU institutions in formal and informal settings (Tripartite Social Summit, Employment Committee, Social Protection Committee, Social Dialogue Committee, consultation meeting ahead of the Annual Growth Survey, EMCO dedicated meeting on the involvement of social partners in the Semester at national level).
Nevertheless further improvements are needed, in particular at national level to ensure that national consultations of social partners are organised in a more consistent and structured manner at the different stages of the semester.
The EU social partners therefore decided organise two cluster seminars, one in 2017 and the other in 2018, to discuss the involvement of national members in the Semester process and build on their respective contributions based on the Country Reports, ahead of the publication of the Country Specific Recommendations.
Seminar’s objectives
- Follow-up of the 2016 quadri-partite statement and of the EU social partners 2013 declaration;
- Exchange of practices on social partners’ involvement at national level in order to identify and multiply best practices in policy designing and implementation;
- Evaluation of the impact of social partners’ involvement in the European Semester process including its transparency and openness;
- Role of social partners in the economic governance processes, including in the context of the macro-economic imbalance procedure (MIP) to comment on in-depth country reviews.
Documents & Presentations
Presentations: