Enhancing the Effectiveness of Social Dialogue Articulation in Europe (EESDA) Project No. VS/2017/0434 Comparative policy recommendations on improving social dialogue articulation and effectiveness in Europe

Abstract

The history of European social dialogue dates back to the mid-1980s with the Val Duchesse social dialogue initiative by the European Commission. The aim then was to involve social partners in the internal market process. This initiative was followed by the Single European Act of 1986, which served as the legal basis of the community-wide social dialogue and established a steering committee, which then became the main bipartite body, known as the European Social Dialogue Committee. Following the Act of 1986, another turning point in the history of social dialogue was the Treaty of Maastricht in 1991, which paved the way for agreements negotiated by social partners to become legally binding by means of a Council decision. Later, the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997 included an Agreement on Social Policy representing the single common framework for social dialogue across all Member States, resulting in the implementation of a cross-industry Framework Agreement on Parental Leave (1996)3, Part-time Work (1997)4 and Fixed-term Work (1999)5 as Council directives. The Lisbon Treaty of 2009 further emphasised the need for autonomy and diversity within the social partnership in Europe