On Wednesday 31 January, at the Château de Val Duchesse in Brussels, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, represented by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European social partners signed a declaration on strengthening social dialogue in the EU, 39 years after the first summit of this type organised in the same place by the former President of the Commission, Jacques Delors.
This “tripartite declaration for a thriving European social dialogue”, signed at an event not open to the press, marked a renewed “commitment to strengthen social dialogue at EU level and to join forces in addressing the key challenges our economies and labour markets are facing”, according to a Presidency press release. It added: “The objective is to achieve thriving companies [...] services of general interest and public services, quality jobs and improved working conditions”.
The aim is to protect and develop the progress already made, the proposal for a directive on European Works Councils being a recent illustration of this social dialogue (see EUROPE 13335/91).
In particular, the Commission, the Belgian Presidency and the European social partners agreed in this declaration to:
- address labour and skills shortages, at a time when almost two-thirds (63%) of small and medium-sized enterprises believe that labour and skills shortages are holding them back in their business. The Commission will present an action plan to combat labour and skills shortages in spring 2024;
- place “European social dialogue at the heart of our future” and fully respect and promote the role of the social partners and social dialogue;
- appoint a ‘European Social Dialogue Envoy’ to “promote and strengthen the role of social dialogue at European and national level. This Envoy will be the contact point for social partners”;
- launch a European social dialogue pact with a series of bipartite and tripartite meetings to determine how to further strengthen social dialogue at EU level.
Study on the benefits of social dialogue
On the same day, the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) published a study underlining that government support for collective bargaining is the approach “most effective in containing low-wage employment”.
“Around 19% of female workers and some 14% of male workers earn low wages in Europe, and the political trend in recent decades has been from support for collective bargaining to the implementation of statutory minimum wages”, say the authors of the study. They point out that “to fight low pay it is essential to protect not just workers at the bottom of the wage distribution, but also to prevent the decline of wages towards the bottom”.
Links to the declaration and the study: https://aeur.eu/f/anw ; https://aeur.eu/f/anv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)