Promoting social dialogue in an enlarged Europe

ON January 9 and 10, the European Commission organised a conference on 'Promoting social dialogue in an enlarged Europe' in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The conference brought together about 200 delegates representing social partners from the accession countries.

The delegates from Malta were Victor Scicluna, chairman of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD); John B. Scicluna, FOI administration manager; and Lino Vassallo, secretary of the Hotels, Restaurants, Food and Beverages Section at the UHM.

The conference dealt with various aspects of social dialogue, including how it could be used as a force for modernisation and change; the importance of bipartite dialogue as an essential complement to tripartite discussions; the importance of having autonomous social partners; and how to make social dialogue contribute efficiently to the European social model.

The main conclusions of the conference were that the social partners in many of the accession countries had problems of fragmentation, representation, autonomy, and lack of human resources and of financial resources that they had to tackle urgently so as to be in a position to fulfil their functions effectively.

It was also stressed that there should be a balance and a link between bipartite and tripartite social dialogue and between the social dialogue at national level and at EU level.