EU: together the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the social partners commit to restarting social dialogue at all levels

Game, set, and match. The European social partners (the ETUC representing trade unions and BusinessEurope, CEEP, and the UEAPME representing employers) had agreed a text for the restarting of social dialogue that they had wished to see taken up by the European institutions. Then on 27 June an agreement was signed by these organizations together with both the European Commission and the Council of the European Union (which represents the Member States), committing the institutions to promoting union and employer participation in social dialogue at all levels.
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In January 2016 the European social partners signed a joint declaration calling for social dialogue and collaboration between the social partners to be put back at the center of how the European Institutions operate. The declaration recalled the European Commission’s role in establishing a suitable framework for developing a culture of social dialogue and called on the Member States to do similarly, at national level. The social partners had been hoping that this would lead to a four-party agre

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