2003/174/EC: Council Decision of 6 March 2003 establishing a Tripartite Social Summit for Growth and Employment

Council Decision
of 6 March 2003
establishing a Tripartite Social Summit for Growth and Employment
(2003/174/EC)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 202 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Whereas:
(1) The social partners are associated in the implementation of the coordinated employment strategy established by the Luxembourg European Council of 20 and 21 November 1997 within the Standing Committee on Employment established by Council Decision 70/532/EEC of the Council of 14 December 1970 setting up the Standing Committee on Employment of the European Communities(1).
(2) The Cologne European Council of 3 and 4 June 1999 set up a macroeconomic dialogue with the participation of representatives from the Council, the Commission, the European Central Bank and the social partners.
(3) The Lisbon European Council of 23 and 24 March 2000 set a new strategic goal for the next decade and agreed that achievement of that goal required an overall strategy designed to integrate structural reforms, a coordinated European employment strategy, social protection and macroeconomic policies in the context of coordination of the general economic policies of the Member States. In its Communication "The European social dialogue, a force for innovation and change", the Commission stressed that the Tripartite Social Summit could contribute to the debate on these topics.
(4) In their joint contribution to the Laeken European Council of 14 and 15 December 2001, the social partners pointed out that the Standing Committee on Employment had not led to such an integration of concertation and that it did not meet the need for coherence and synergy between the various processes in which they were involved. They therefore proposed that it should be abolished and that a new form of tripartite consultation should be established.
(5) In that joint contribution, the social partners proposed to formalise their meetings with the Troika at the level of Heads of State or Government and the Commission which, in the context of the Luxembourg process, have been held since 1997 on the eve of European Councils. Since December 2000, these meetings have been known as Social Summits and they are attended by the President of the Commission and the Troika of Heads of State or Government together with the Ministers for Labour and Social Affairs and the social partners represented by the Union of Industrial Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP), the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Eurocadres and the Confédération européenne des cadres (CEC).
(6) The Laeken European Council took note of the social partners' willingness to develop and improve coordination of concertation on the various aspects of the Lisbon strategy. It agreed that such a Social Summit would in future be held before each spring European Council. This was confirmed by the Barcelona European Council of 15 and 16 March 2002.
(7) This Decision is without prejudice to the organisation and operation of the social dialogue in the various Member States.
(8) In the context of enlargement and development of an autonomous social dialogue, the widest possible representativity as well as the legitimacy and effectiveness of the consultation of social partners are of the highest importance. To that end, it is necessary to take into account the Commission study on the representativeness of the social partners and the revised list of organisations involved in all dimensions of social dialogue at European level, and that list should be updated,