Press Release: ‘ Now, more than ever before, is the hour of the social partners’, says Commission

The Presidency, a 'troika' of EU governments, social partners and the European Commission started work on identifying the future role of the social partners with a view to the upcoming EU institutional reform at a 'Social Summit' held in Laeken on 13 December 2001 ahead of the social partners' joint declaration for the Laeken summit on 14 December 2001. Sixteen years after the launch of EU-level social dialogue, the Social Summit will take stock of the dialogue and identify ways to strengthen it faced with the need to manage rapid economic and social change. The declared aim of the EU social partners, set out in their joint declaration, is to draw up a multiannual work programme for the social dialogue. The details and timetable of this programme will decide over the course of 2002.