Speeches

Mr President, honourable members, social dialogue is a cornerstone of our European social model, with the unique role of social partners recognised in our founding Treaties. It is also one of the key principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Supporting it is therefore a priority for our Commission and for me, personally. Strong social dialogue and collective bargaining benefit us all – be it workers, employers, governments and societies – and are also powerful tools to promote equality. By joining forces, we can better find solutions to the key challenges our economies and societies face. This is why in my first days in office, I met with the European-level social partners, the trade unions and the employers alike. It was crucial for me to establish a strong and effective partnership from the outset. We should be proud of our European social dialogue model and defend it passionately, but we should not take it for granted. Social dialogue faces challenges, even in Europe: from the decrease in the coverage of collective bargaining to the lack of proper involvement of social partners in policy-making. As you know, the right to strike is specifically mentioned in the Treaty in Article 153 as a field that does not fall under the competence of the Union. At the same time, the right of collective bargaining and action is enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. These provisions are applicable to the Member States when they are implementing EU legislation. Our Union acquis on employees' involvement in companies sets out EU-wide standards across very diverse national industrial systems. We have a comprehensive set of directives on information and consultation of workers, which aim to ensure workers' involvement and to protect their rights, notably in restructuring. It is of the essence that this legal framework is properly implemented and enforced across all Member States. Still, with the labour market adapting to new forms of work, and labour and skills shortages threatening to disrupt our businesses and our livelihoods, we need to make sure that social dialogue thrives at all levels. And I will start by building on the initiatives of the previous Commission and ensuring that the existing instruments lead to concrete progress on the ground. First, the Directive on adequate minimum wages, which promotes collective bargaining across Member States. The deadline for the transposition of the directive was 15 November, and most Member States have already notified their transposition, which we will now assess. As the next step, Member States with collective bargaining coverage below 80 % must establish by the end of next year, 2025, an action plan to promote collective bargaining with the close involvement of social partners. You can count on me to promote and monitor the implementation of this important European law. Secondly, we have the 2023 Council Recommendation on strengthening EU social dialogue, which calls on Member States to ensure an enabling environment for social dialogue, including for collective bargaining. Member States will also have to submit by November next year a list of measures prepared in consultation with social partners to implement this recommendation. Together with the Member States, we need to ensure that both of these instruments will lead to increased coverage of collective bargaining across Europe. Third, to make social dialogue in transnational companies more effective, I will do the utmost to help the negotiations conclude – successfully, I hope – on the revision of the European Works Council Directive. To strengthen social dialogue at EU level – as announced in the political guidelines of this Commission – we will also develop a new pact for European social dialogue. Our ambition is to have it by early 2025, maybe by the end of January, with European trade unions and employers signed. I am confident that this pact will boost social dialogue in the European Union and enable social partners to play an even stronger role in the future. It is very important that social partners play a central role in our policy-making. This is why we will also develop the quality jobs roadmap together with the involvement of our social partners. It will support good working conditions. I aim to include training and fair job transitions, and obviously to include the increase in collective bargaining coverage. Quality jobs should be the trademark of a competitive Europe. We need to put people and their jobs at the centre stage, while we strive for a more competitive Europe and move forward with a just transition. And I am certain that by working closely with social partners, we will achieve just that.