EU viert twintigste verjaardag van overeenkomst sociale partners (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Pools voorzitterschap Europese Unie 2e helft 2011 i, gepubliceerd op vrijdag 25 november 2011.

Dialogue is the best way of resolving social problems.

‘A reflection on European achievements in the realm of social policy would appear to be particularly valuable,’ Minister of Labour and Social Policy Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz remarked during a conference the theme of which was Negotiations, consultations and the autonomy of social partners in the European Union: 20thanniversary of the social partners’ agreement.

Laszlo Andor i, European Union Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, emphasised the influence of social partners on social legislation.

The conference was organised by the European Commission and the Polish Presidency in Warsaw on 24th-25thNovember this year.

The conference summed up the achievements of the social partners’ agreement, signed on 31stOctober 1991, which led to the Maastricht Social Protocol.

It was emphasised that the possibility of shaping community law through social negotiations emerged thanks to the initiative of social partners.

An essential innovation introduced by the Maastricht Social Protocol, subsequently enshrined in the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, was a resolution enabling social partners to reach agreements at the European level which, upon acceptance by the Council, could become EU secondary laws. There also emerged the possibility of national social partners implementing EU social directives by means of agreements. The Social Protocol also made the Commission duty -bound to consult its proposed directives with social partners — an arrangement accepted by the social partners’ agreement.

In Nice in 2000, the European Council adopted the European Social Agenda which supplemented the Lisbon Strategy with a social dimension. The war on poverty and social exclusion, ensuring stable and adequate retirement pensions and proper medical care thus became the social objectives of the European Union’s economic development.

The participants of the anniversary conference underlined the importance of social partners in building a solidarity-minded society.