As announced in theEuropean Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, adopted last March, the European Commission has recently initiated a review ofthe EU sectoral social dialogue.

The review, which will be presented in 2022, is part of the initiative to support social dialogue at the EU and national levels. The review aims to support the EU sectoral social dialogue to better embrace challenges in the world of work, such as digitalisation and new forms of work.

Meaningful social partner involvement in the EU sectoral social dialogue aims to foster quality recommendations to policy makers on:

  • the strategic importance for the social partners’ organisations to contribute to policy-making;
  • the most effective ways to contribute to EU policy-making;
  • the key factors to further improve the involvement of social partners in EU policy-making.

European social dialogue refers to discussions, consultations, negotiations and joint actions involving organisations representing the two sides of industry – employers and workers. It takes two main forms:

  • a tripartite dialogue involving the public authorities;
  • a bipartite dialogue between the European employers and trade union organisations. This takes place at cross-industry level and within sectoral social dialogue committees.