EUROPEAN SOCIAL DIALOGUE, A HIDDEN PHENOMENA OF THE INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE IN EUROPE

Abstract

Talking about intercultural dialogue in Europe we think about the dialogue between the actors within the European Union and/or between its people. The intercultural side of the European social dialogue as it is established in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) does not automatically come in our minds. If we consider however that the actors of the social dialogue are coming from different industrial relations schemes, that the national social dialogue within the EU member states have its own specific character a look on the cross-border social dialogue is worthwhile. Not only on a national level but on the European stage social dialogue plays an important role in forming a European labour law within the European Common Market. This particular niche of intercultural dialogue in Europe the article is dedicated to. Within the cross-boarder social dialogue, different systems collide which is a challenge as such. As far as the bipartite and tripartite social dialogue is concerned it is already difficult enough to bring together the different approaches of the national cultures. And it is evident that it is a huge challenge on the corporate level, where workers of different companies of different countries meet each other, obliged to come to common results concerning the information and consultation rights given to the European Works Councils (EWC) by law. This phenomena is to be found in all transnational European companies, namely in those with EWC but also in companies with a specific European legal form such as in the Societas Europaea (SE) where we find works councils and supervisory boards with members from all countries concerned.