Brussels, 05/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The high-level conference on the social dialogue organised by the European Commission in Brussels on Thursday 5 March, is expected to signify “a new departure” for cooperation between the European institutions and the national and European workers and employers' organisations. The aim of this “new departure” was not to change the existing framework of the social dialogue but rather, give a promise to the social partners that the political power would listen to them and be more attentive to their demands and improve the way that they are included in the decision-making process.
Everyone heeded the appeal to attend this major meeting to praise the virtues of the social dialogue. The Commission sent a sizeable delegation, with its President Jean-Claude Juncker, two vice presidents and no fewer than three Commissioners. The Council of the EU was represented by the Latvian Minister for Social Protection, Uldis Augulis. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, also attended, as well as the leaders of some of the most important European social partners (BusinessEurope, ETUC, CEEP and the UEAPME), not to mention the many different national delegations.
Everyone was eager to underline the essential role of the dialogue in the functioning of the social market economy in Europe and the commonly held wish to unite the aims of competitiveness and fairness. Highlighting these two principles, however, still led to a number of disagreements. The employers' organisations highlighted competitiveness, whilst the unions emphasised fairness. This conference was therefore another opportunity for social partners to express their demands and grievances which sometimes led to the fact that the original idea was not to carry out the usual discussion on political priorities but to diagnose the social dialogue in its present shape and not overall. The ETUC Secretary General, Bernadette Ségol, complained that such a “dialogue of the deaf” had been going on for more than 10 years.
In this way, the discussion on the social dialogue was implicit to a certain extent, according to certain people, such as Markus Beyrer from BusinessEurope, who said that it was more important to discuss policies than procedures. Did this effectively mean that this conference was yet just another congress at the end of which everyone went home and nothing really changed, asked Peter Clever from the German Employers Confederation (BDA)?
The Commission was determined to avoid this kind of idea regarding its conference, which explains why Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis (Euro and Social Dialogue) emphasised that it involved taking a first step to the recasting of the European social dialogue. He repeated the fact that they had good intentions, were serious and that this recasting would principally take place through obtaining a better hearing. The Commission therefore proposed to improve the way in which partners were involved in the EU's economic governance by offering them more opportunities for consultation and guaranteeing them that this year they and member states would have more time for reflection and analysis in the framework of the “European Semester” process.
The idea was therefore not to change the instruments or the existing structure of the social dialogue, which was something that the Commission and the social partners did not want. The priority was therefore, above all, ensuring that the promise for a genuine hearing and mutual trust was put back at the centre of the social dialogue, so that such a dialogue would not be summed up in a series of monotonous monologues. By organising such a conference, the first “high-level” one under the mandate of this Commission and placing it within the famous “Val Duchesse discussions” of 30 years ago, Juncker was eager to send a signal to the social partners that they were part of the decision-making process, by being consulted within it and listened to and that their opinion would, quite simply, be taken into account. (Jan Kordys)