The European Semester for 2016-2017 highlighted a series of questions about the quality of the involvement of social partners in drafting the National Reform Programmes, as well as in implementing country-specific recommendations. A report, published in February 2018, examines Member States’ various social dialogue practices and the role of national authorities in including employers’ organisations and trade organisations in reforms.

This report has four chapters. The first two focus on evaluation over the two-year period, the third examines in detail the progress achieved in a sample of 12 Member States, and the last concludes the report with comments on social partners’ ability to contribute to implementing reforms and to successful social dialogue.

With regard to best practices, Ricardo Rodriguez Contreras, the report’s author and the Eurofound expert in social dialogue, cites these examples:

• In Estonia, a cooperation programme between the Estonian Employers’ Confederation (ETKL) and the Estonian Trade Unions Confederation (EAKL). They combined a portion of their budgets in order to boost the quality of their participation in decision-making by training union representatives and employers’ representatives together, and by developing a joint IT system for draft agreements and collective bargaining.

• In Portugal, a standing committee for social cooperation (CPCS). It acts as an interface between the government, employers’ organisations and unions. A crucial partner, it ensures a constant, regular process of consulting with social partners. It played a decisive role in negotiations when Portugal had to take austerity measures when it was in the Excessive Deficit Procedure.

However, the social partners (except in France and Sweden) are critical of the effectiveness of their participation. They report that the consultation process is too brief, which limits discussions and interactions and does not allow them to contribute to the final version of texts.

Malta stands out as being the only Member State in which all stakeholders agree that the social partners have significant influence. Indeed, in Malta, a ministry is specifically responsible for social dialogue.