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Lapeyre, J. “Forty Years After Its Creation: What Relaunch for European Social Dialogue?”, Brief, Jacques Delors Institue, January 2025

Forty years ago, on January 31st, 1985, Jacques Delors, just one month after taking office as President of the European Commission, gathered European trade union and employer leaders for a first summit, known as the Val Duchesse Summit, to launch European social dialogue. After a preliminary initiation phase during which the social partners established a common language for negotiation, a phase of building a contractual space led to significant agreements regulating the European social space (parental leave, part-time work, fixed-term contracts, etc.). Following a disappointing phase of autonomy in social dialogue, with agreements failing to lead to European legislation and instead being weakly implemented at the national level by the social partners themselves, social dialogue no longer produced significant results. So, what kind of relaunch is possible? In December 2024, the social partners negotiated a Pact for European Social Dialogue aimed at giving it a new impetus. But will this truly succeed?