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The social partners joined European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė (representing the rotating EU presidency) ahead of an EU summit.
The talks focused on the Commission's recent Communication on strengthening the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union, which proposed to improve the EU's economic governance system by, for example, creating a scoreboard of employment and social indicators and further involving the social partners to ensure an effective social dialogue at the EU and national levels.
At the meeting, the social partners presented a joint declaration on their involvement in the EU's system of economic governance and welcomed the EU's commitment to reinforce their involvement. They called for their views to be referenced in the Annual Growth Survey (which sets the EU's overall economic and social priorities for the coming year) and fully taken into account at both EU and national level when policies are implemented throughout the year.
They also presented their progress on their joint work programme 2012-2014, including under the Framework of Actions on Youth Employment.
Commission President José Manuel Barroso said: "Our message is clear: social and employment considerations must feature more prominently in current EU economic governance structures, and social partners at European Union and national levels must become more involved in this process. Europe is first and foremost about people, which is why the Commission has placed social issues at the core of our economic strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, Europe 2020. The social dimension is an inherent part of the European project and of everything that we have been doing over the years. The prominence and visibility of social and employment issues in our governance system is now stronger. Boosting social dialogue at the EU and national levels is crucial to ensure ownership of our policies and to ensure the right balance."
Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, who also attended the meeting, commented: "To be sustainable in the long term, Europe's Economic and Monetary Union needs to strengthen its social dimension. Open and effective dialogue with the representatives of workers and employers is essential if we are to succeed in the task of putting Europe back on the track of a job-rich and inclusive recovery. This includes dialogue at the EU as well as at the national level."
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said: "The "social dimension" communication presented by the European Commission is a good step in the right direction. It recognises our social interdependence, it highlights the risks created by social divergences, and it aims at identifying spillovers between Member States by the creation of a social and employment scoreboard. In addition, expanding social dialogue both at the national and the European level is the surest way to ensure a widely shared diagnosis with social partners and a stronger ownership of the conclusions of the European Semester. We need constant feedback from businesses and trade unions to ensure not only that decisions are well informed and take existing realities into account but also that these decisions are understood and their acceptance and legitimacy ensured."