On 21 October, the European Commission hosted its first technical seminar focusing on social partners’ contribution to policy making. It forms part of the review aiming to support the EU sectoral social dialogue to better embrace challenges in the world of work, such as digitalisation and new forms of work.

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The review of the EU sectoral social dialogue is part of the initiative to support social dialogue at the EU and national level, which will be presented in 2022. This was announced in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, adopted on 4 March.

First the opinion of the social partners’ were gathered through a survey. On 21 October, the European Commission's Direction General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion hosted its first technical seminar focusing on social partners’ contribution to policy making.

This technical seminar was about meaningful social partner involvement in order to foster quality recommendations to policy makers. Mr Stefan Olsson, Director for Working Conditions and Social Dialogue, engaged with EU social partners and listened to their views on:

• the strategic importance for the social partners organisations to contribute to policy-making;
• the most effective ways to contribute to EU policy making;
• the key factors to further improve the involvement of social partners in EU policy-making.

Two more seminars with the sectoral social partners are scheduled: on social dialogue outcomes and impact (18 November) and on social dialogue structure (9 December).