The European Social Partners BusinessEurope, CEEP, SMEunited (formerly called UEAPME) and ETUC have agreed to undertake a joint project in 2012 focused on the outcomes of the European Social Dialogue.

Since 2004, the readiness and capacity of the national social partners to work at the national and European level in a separate and bipartite way has improved. EU social dialogue achievements have proved to have a positive spill-over effect on the developments at national level as well. But there remains room for improvement in a number of countries.

Going forward, the European social partners believe that capacity building initiatives need to be continued and this needs to be done in a well coordinated manner and targeted towards the precise needs of their constituencies.

European social partners will therefore continue supporting their respective affiliates through the joint implementation of the following activities:

SEMINARS ON “EU SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EU SOCIAL DIALOGUE INSTRUMENTS”

Social partners agreed to undertake joint action to improve the way in which autonomous framework agreements are implemented, taking into account the diversity of European industrial relations systems.

For this reason, the EU SP have decided to support their member organisations by providing an opportunity to discuss the implementation of EU social dialogue instruments through the organisation of 4 seminars.

The aim is to bring together social partners representatives from different member states to this end.

Seminar 1 – 11-12 April 2012 in Sofia, Bulgaria
Countries:
– Bulgaria
– Romania
– Slovakia

Texts discussed during this seminar can be downloaded here.

Action plans: Bulgaria – Romania – Slovakia

Seminar 2 – 22-23 May 2012 in Tallinn, Estonia
Countries:
– Estonia
– Latvia
– Lithuania

Texts discussed during this seminar can be downloaded here.

Action plans: Estonia – Latvia – Lithuania

Seminar 3 – 21-22 June 2012 in Berlin, Germany
Countries:
– Germany
– Italy
– Spain

Texts discussed during this seminar can be downloaded here.

Seminar 4 – 4-5 October 2012 in Larnaca, Cyprus
Countries:
– Cyprus
– Malta
– Greece

Texts discussed during this seminar can be downloaded here.


JOINT “TRAINING AND MENTORING” SEMINARS

This training and mentoring programme on EU social dialogue will involve both trade unions? and employers? representatives from the five candidate countries Croatia, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey.

This joint action seeks to be built on the positive experience of the training and mentoring programmes that were realised in previous programmes in a separate manner.

The action would consist of gathering representatives of the national social partner organisations of candidate countries, who will benefit from first-hand exposure to the European social dialogue processes, mechanisms, actors and results, which can also help to further develop their negotiation skills.

Seminar 1 – 22-23 March 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey
Candidate countries:
– Turkey
– Iceland

Texts discussed during this seminar can be downloaded here.

Seminar 2 – 13-14 September 2012 in Zagreb, Croatia
Candidate countries:
– Croatia
– FYROM
– Montenegro

Texts discussed during this seminar can be downloaded here.