European Social Partners at cross-industry level:
BusinessEurope: is the leading advocate for growth and competitiveness at European level, standing up for companies across the continent and campaigning on the issues that most influence their performance. A recognised social partner, it speaks for all-sized enterprises in 34 European countries and it incorporates their 40 national business federations as its direct members.
SMEunited (formerly UEAPME): SMEunited is the employers’ organisation representing the interests of European crafts, trades and SMEs at EU level. SMEunited is a recognised European Social Partner. It is a non-profit seeking and non-partisan organisation, that incorporates around 80 member organisations from 34 countries consisting of national cross-sectorial SME federations, European branch federations and other associate members, which support the SME family.
SGI Europe (formerly CEEP): SGI Europe represents at EU level employers and providers of services of general interest and of public services. SGI Europe’s membership includes enterprises and authorities from the EU, the UK, Norway and Turkey (as National Sections) and several European associations (as Sectoral Federations).
ETUC: The European Trade Union Confederation represents all European workers. A recognised social partner, it incorporates 85 member organizations in 36 countries (10 European Industry Federations, the Liaison Committee CEC/Eurocadres and FERPA).
European Commission:
European Commission main webpage
European Commission DG EMPL: Directorate-General of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the EU Commission.
Tripartite agencies:
Eurofound – European Foundation for the improvement of living and working conditions: is a tripartite European Union Agency, whose role is to provide knowledge in the area of social and work-related policies. Eurofound’s provides information, advice and expertise – on living and working conditions, industrial relations and managing change in Europe – for key actors in the field of EU social policy on the basis of comparative information, research and analysis.
- EIRO – European Industrial Relations Observatory: it is a monitoring instrument offering news and analysis on European industrial relations, as part of Eurofound’s Network of European Observatories (NEO) together with the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO) and the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM). Its purpose is to collect, analyse and disseminate high-quality and up-to-date information, primarily to serve the needs of national and European level organisations of the social partners, governmental organisations and EU institutions.
EU OSHA- European Agency for Health and Safety at Work: raises awareness on safety, health and productivity to make Europe more stable and foster growth. It promotes a culture of risk prevention to address working conditions in Europe through campaigning, prevention, partnership and research.
CEDEFOP- the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training: supports development of European vocational education and training (VET) policies and contributes to their implementation. Cedefop works to develop European cooperation and provides evidence on which to base European VET policy.
Others:
ESF- European Social Fund: The ESF is Europe’s main instrument for supporting the creation of more and better jobs, adapting the workers’ skills to the labour market and providing enterprises with new ways of working. It works by investing in Europe’s human capital – its workers, its young people and all those seeking a job. ESF financing of EUR 10 billion a year is improving job prospects for millions of Europeans, in particular those who find it difficult to get work.
EaSI – Employment and Social Innovation programme is a European-level financing instrument managed directly by the European Commission to support employment, social policy and labour mobility across the EU. EaSI funding is used to test ideas for reform out on the ground, evaluate them and then upscale the best ones across Member States.
EaSIbrings together three EU programmes :
- PROGRESS: the PROGRESS programme of the European Commission is a financial instrument supporting the development and coordination of EU policy in the areas of Employment, Social inclusion and social protection, Working conditions, Anti-discrimination and Gender equality.
- EURES: is the European Job Mobility Portal of the European Commission. Its purpose is to provide information, advice and recruitment/placement (job-matching) services for the benefit of workers and employers as well as any citizen wishing to benefit from the principle of the free movement of persons.
- PROGRESS Microfinance: the European Progress Microfinance Facility, launched in 2010, increases the availability of microcredit – loans below € 25 000 – for setting up or developing a small business. It does not directly finance entrepreneurs, but enables selected microcredit providers in the EU to increase lending.
Eurostat: is the statistical office of the European Union. Its task is to provide the European Union with statistics at European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions.