European Trade Union Confederation

Wanja Lundby-Wedin, President of the European Confederation of Trade Unions 2007-2011.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), in English European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), was founded in 1973 with the aim of unitarily representing the workers and affiliates of their respective countries at European level. Its role in the decision-making process in Europe has become increasingly important since European integration has broadened the Union's influence on economic, social and employment policies in the 28 Member States.

Currently, ETUC affiliates include 89 national trade union confederations from a total of 39 European countries, and 10 European industry federations covering approximately 45 million trade unionists.

The president of the ETUC is Rudy De Leeuw (President of the FGTB union, Belgium) - who succeeded Ignacio Fernández Toxo, a member of the Spanish union Comisiones Obreras - and its general secretary is Luca Visentini, a member of the Italian union UIL, both elected during the 13th ETUC Congress, held in Paris in October 2015.

The ETUC's mission is to create a united Europe of peace and stability, where workers and their families enjoy full human, civil, social and employment rights, as well as a high standard of living. To achieve this goal, the ETUC promotes the so-called European social model that combines sustainable economic growth with the improvement of living and working conditions, including full employment, social protection, equal opportunities, good quality employment, social inclusion and the development of an open and democratic policy that fully involves citizens in making decisions that directly affect them.

The ETUC defends the consultation of workers, collective bargaining, social dialogue and good working conditions as fundamental elements to achieve these objectives and promote innovation, productivity and growth in Europe.

The ETUC's primary objective is the representation of the European trade union movement in the EU. This organization works with the other European social partners (representing employers) and with community institutions to establish employment, social and macroeconomic policies that reflect the interests of workers across Europe.

The Treaty establishing the European Community grants the social partners the right to formulate their own legislative proposals through intersectoral agreements related to various social policy issues. The social partners have already negotiated three agreements at the community level that have been put into practice through European directives that establish essential rights for workers:

• On parental leave (1996)
• On part-time work (1997)
• On contracts of fixed duration (1999)

Since 2002, the ETUC has expanded its role in industrial relations at EU level by promoting the development of autonomous social dialogue between workers' and employers' representatives. The social partners have formalized “autonomous” agreements regarding:

• Distance work (2002)
• Work-related stress (2004)
• Harassment and Violence at Work (2007)
• A framework of actions for the permanent development of competencies and qualifications (2002), and a framework of actions on equality between women and men (2005).

The social partners themselves are the ones who have implemented these agreements at national, regional and company level. The current Multiannual Work Program of the social partners is valid until 2008.

The ETUC is the main representative body vis-à-vis the institutions of the European Union for workers. Together with the other European social partners, the ETUC works with all European bodies: the Presidency, the Council, the Commission and Parliament. The Treaty establishing the European Community defines their right to represent the interests of European workers in the formulation of community employment, social and macroeconomic policy. Thus, the CES:

• participates in the tripartite social summits held annually;
• elaborates the union response to the proposals of the European Commission;
• is linked to an intergroup of MEPs belonging to different parties in the European Parliament;
• coordinates trade union participation in various consultative bodies, including the Economic and Social Committee and the Union for Vocational Training (ECDEFOP), improve living and working conditions (Dublin Foundation), health and safety (Bilbao).

In the semi-annual meetings on the Macroeconomic Dialogue, instituted in 1998, the social partners discuss economic policies with the Council of Ministers of Economy and Finance (ECOFIN), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Comission.

The ETUC also promotes a campaign for the achievement of a social Europe through direct action, as in the case of European demonstrations (for example against the Bolkestein Services Directive) and an internet petition to favor of public services.

The trade union organizations that are part of the ETUC (for example, the European Federation of Mining, Chemical and Energy Workers) maintain their own decision-making procedures. Delegates from affiliated organizations decide democratically on ETUC policies and activities at European level, and the ETUC itself has no authority to impose guidelines on national confederations. The ETUC also has its own democratic structure.

The ETUC is in charge of coordinating the activities of the 45 Interregional Trade Union Councils, which organize trade union cooperation outside the national borders of the European Union.

The ETUC is the only cross-sectoral representative trade union organization at European level recognized by the European Union, the Council of Europe and the European Free Trade Association.