Involvement of the social partners in the European Semester: 2016 update
Published: 24 February 2017
This report provides an update on the role of national social partners in the European Semester process over the period 2015–2016, describing the main developments and changes compared with a previous Eurofound study on their involvement during the period 2011–2014. It examines the social partners’ involvement in the elaboration of the National Reform Programmes and to what extent they are heard and their views taken into account with regard to social and labour policies. Overall, the involvement of social partners in most Member States is carried out in a relatively smooth way. Some progress can be identified in terms of both the number of Member States in which improvement has taken place and the procedures applied for involving the social partners. However, significant differences remain in the practices, quality and effectiveness of social partner involvement in the European Semester process.
The executive summary for this publication is available in PDF format.
ISBN
978-92-897-1575-1
Number of pages
40
Reference no.
EF1665
Catalogue number
TJ-02-17-224-EN-N
DOI
10.2806/104524
Publication series
16 February 2016
This report explores the involvement of peak social partners in the European Semester at EU and national level during the period 2011 to 2014. While their role in the European Semester is not set out in the European economic governance provisions (the so-called ‘Six-Pack’), the European institutional bodies view the two sides of industry as being key to the development of the Semester, and have called for their closer involvement. This report assesses the degree to which the social partners are involved in the different stages of the European Semester procedure on matters regarding employment and social policy issues and how their involvement could be enhanced. At the same time, it examines the role played by the European Commission and the national governments in communicating the country-specific recommendations. The study also looks at the views of the social partners themselves. The report was compiled on the basis of desk research and individual national reports submitted by Eurofound’s network of European correspondents covering all 28 EU Member States.
