Of relevance to the previous item and as already mentioned in a previous WP News bulletin, the European social partners had decided to give thought to the consequences of the new European economic governance for social dialogue on the EU and national levels. After several meetings, the ETUC, BusinessEurope, UEAPME and CEEP succeeded in reaching agreement on a draft joint statement.

The draft joint statement describes the ways in which the European Social Partners consider that the involvement of both European and national social partners could be strengthened and improved at both European and national levels, in particular in relation to the European semester process, by the use of, in the main, existing bipartite and tripartite structures and mechanisms.

The employer organisations’ decision-making bodies (BusinessEurope, UEAPME and CEEP) have already approved the statement, and the ETUC Executive Committee is expected to do likewise at its meeting on 22-23 October 2013.