The Commission underpins a crucial role of collective bargaining in Europe which is to be retained and further developed.  Despite the moderate decline in trade unions membership, there are still a major portion of employees covered by a collective agreement. At the same time, employers’ organisation memberships seem to be stable.  However, there are marked differences between the Member States. While bargaining coverage is 68% in the EU-15 Member States, it is 43% in those countries that joined the EU since 2004.

Strong social partners’ organisations and relationships based on trust are considered to be a must to challenge its capacities effectively. For this reason of a substantial increase in support aimed at members of social dialogue through the European social Fund, in particular in the “2004 and after” member states.

What the report highlights mainly is the ability of social partners to negotiate and put into practice autonomous agreements at the EU-level which opens the way to its further involvement in the EU decision-making process.