In a joint declaration adopted on Wednesday, 20 March at the Tripartite Social Summit, the social partners (ETUC, BusinessEurope, CEEP and SMEunited) called on EU citizens to participate in the vote in the May European elections.
The organisations that signed the declaration consider it crucial to defend the European project in the name of "democracy, human rights, freedom and equality", but also in order to support economic growth and “social justice”.
In the declaration, the signatories highlight the principle of unity in order to face the current challenges, citing, in no particular order: - international tensions (a reference in particular to the emerging trade disputes between the United States and China); - negotiations with the United Kingdom on Brexit; - unemployment, especially among young people; - climate change; - transformations linked to digitisation and "the reinforcement of economic and social inequality", terminology that would not normally form part of the vocabulary of employers' organisations, indicates a source.
Strengthening social dialogue
During the summit, which was attended by Valdis Dombrovskis, the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Social Dialogue and the Euro, but not Marianne Thyssen, the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs - who was attending the EPP Assembly - a partnership proposal to improve the quality of collective bargaining in Europe was tabled by Luca Visentini, the Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
The objective is to engage all of the actors (social partners, European institutions, governments) to strengthen collective bargaining at national and sectoral level, with the aim of increasing wages and reducing the wage gap between the western and eastern parts of the EU.
The trade unions also hope, amongst other things, to increase awareness of the quality of collective bargaining in the context of the country-by-country recommendations made under the 'European Semester' budget process, and to improve the allocation of European funds to support social partners and the development of high quality collective bargaining, through the European Social Fund in particular.
They believe it is still possible to improve social dialogue and collective bargaining within the EU, particularly among the Member States of Central and Eastern Europe.
BusinessEurope said it was open to discussions, according to one source.
Brexit
Mr Visentini, Pierre Galtaiz, President of BusinessEurope, and Ulrike Rabmer-Koller, President of SMEunited, all expressed their deep fears - repeated at the press conference - about the risk posed to the economic situation by a no-deal Brexit.
Ms Rabmer-Koller in particular used the occasion to highlight the burden of uncertainty, underlining the fact that SMEs do not have the necessary resources to prepare for a number of scenarios simultaneously.
Sibiu. Finally, the social partners asked if they could be present and listened to at the Sibiu Summit on 9 May, which will be devoted to the Future of the European Union, emphasising the quality of their contributions at the Rome or Gothenburg Summits in 2017. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)