At the signing ceremony of the quadripartite statement on the Relaunch of Social Dialogue (co-signed by the European Commission, the European Council, CEEP, BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME and the European Trade Union Confederation), Valeria Ronzitti, CEEP General Secretary, said:

“Dear Vice-president Dombrovskis,
Dear Commissioner Thyssen,
Dear Ambassador,
Dear colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to sign this statement for the relaunch of Social Dialogue which we all agreed to initiate on the 5 March 2015. Today, the signature of this statement acquires a very special meaning. More than ever, we are signing up for a European social dialogue able to play a key role in bringing the European project forward. For that, we need strong and representative national social partners, with strong mandates in EU bipartite negotiations and a clear legitimacy to be involved and associated in shaping national reform programmes.

That is why, above all, we, employers of public services, strongly welcome the strong emphasis of the quadripartite statement of capacity-building for national social partners and the declaration of support from the European Commission and the EU Council.

We also firmly believe that national social partners can contribute to ensuring a better connection between the EU and its citizens, at a time when it seems so difficult. To accomplish this, they need support from the Commission and from national governments. We particularly welcome the emphasis in our joint statement on supporting new capacity building activities and leaving sufficient space for social partners to play their role.

We have a long-term agenda for the relaunch of Social Dialogue, and today is a key step. We want to particularly pay tribute to the work accomplished by the Dutch presidency who made room for the adoption of Council conclusion providing an important contribution in driving this effort forward.

We are now ready to do further work with our institutional partners and will thrive to take this cooperation to new heights for the benefit of Europe and its social model"

The statement for the Relaunch of Social Dialogue is available here.