Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa

Chapter 7: European social dialogue developments 2010 – 2012
European social dialogue supports and enriches the social dimension of the European Union by
constituting a significant and attractive forum for negotiations, consultations and discussions. It
facilitates communication and enables social partner consultations, joint actions and
negotiations. The past two years have proved the importance of the European social dialogue,
with the increasing number of social dialogue committees, numerous projects conducted and
more than seventy common texts adopted by the social partners, including four agreements
setting minimum standards.
7.1 Introduction
The two years since 2010 have been turbulent times for Europe. In the midst of a severe economic
and financial crisis that is exerting a heavy social cost and increasing unemployment, European
social partners have addressed difficult, sometimes conflicting policy issues in the search for
common agreed solutions, thereby demonstrating the value of dialogue between management and
labour at EU level. In times of crisis the EU's task of promoting the role of social partners at
European level, as defined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), takes
on special significance and importance.
The Treaty mandates the European Commission with facilitating the dialogue between the social
partners, i.e. the representatives of management and labour. This is achieved in the framework of
the cross-industry social dialogue committee and some 40 social dialogue committees for different
sectors of the economy. In these committees, employers' organisations and trade unions
autonomously decide on their work programme and the issues they wish to address. The committees
are the place for consultations, discussions and joint actions of the social partners. If the social
partners wish, the committees also provide a forum for negotiations leading to binding agreements,
which could become EU legislation (see box 7.1 for details).
Box 7.1 The principles of European social dialogue
The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) recognises the importance of the
social dialogue between management and labour and states explicitly in Article 152 that "the Union
recognises and promotes the role of the social partners at its level, taking into account the diversity
of national systems. It shall facilitate dialogue between the social partners, respecting their
autonomy." The Treaty acknowledges as well the role of the Tripartite Social Summit for Growth
and Employment which meets at least once a year and brings together representatives of the
Council Presidency, two subsequent Presidencies, the European Commission and the social
partners, who are divided into two delegations of equal size comprising 10 workers' representatives
and 10 employers' representatives. Furthermore, Article 154 TFEU obliges the Commission to
promote and support the consultation of management and labour at the European level. The
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