European Trade Union Committee for Education

On 14 February, ETUCE hosted the kick off Advisory Group meeting of new project “European Sectoral Social Partners in Education striving for sustainable influence on European education policy building through successful social dialogue”. This project is co-funded by the European Commission, Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and it is carried out by both ETUCE and the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE), who will work in partnership - as European Sectoral Social Partners in Education - in this project for the next two years. The kick off meeting of the Advisory Group allowed to set up the framework for the project’s work programme. The Advisory group is composed by representatives of ETUCE and EFEE, as well as by representatives from ETUCE member organisations in Denmark (DLF), Finland (OAJ), Ireland (IFUT), Italy (UIL Scuola), Luxembourg (SNE), Malta (MUT), Netherlands (AOb) and Portugal (FNE).

During the project lifetime, national education social partners will have the chance to meet with the European sectoral social partners in the context of Round Table meetings, to be conducted in each of the partners’ country (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands and Portugal). During the eight Round Table meetings education social partners will discuss, exchange and debate on topics of high relevance included in the European Sectoral Social Dialogue (ESSDE) work programme, in the hope to help strengthen the relations between the social partners at national and European level, feed in the work of ESSDE with the outcomes of each event. The project final conference will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in June 2018. Participants will have the chance to share outcomes and lessons learned with a view to move forward the European social dialogue to the next stage, for even more effective outcomes.