According to the organisers, the summit served to “reflect on the importance of social dialogue in tackling pressing challenges in the world of work” as “the future of Europe will be built with and by our social partners”. The endorsement of a draft Tripartite Declaration for a Thriving European Social Dialogue was supposed give flesh to a “renewed commitment to strengthen social dialogue at EU level.” In particular, albeit mostly vague in its stipulations, the declaration is intended to jumpstart a further process towards a new so-called Pact for European Social Dialogue, which would put forward new proposals by early 2025 to reinforce European Social Dialogue.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “The summit might have been noble in intentions, but you do not build Europe with social partners by holding a closed-door meeting with a handful of people, high-ranking as they may be. You start by reaching out to all players and include representatives of independent trade unions too. A brand new representativeness study from the European Commission’s very own agency Eurofound certifies that CESI represents 15% of the organised workers in Europe – but a request to participate in the summit was plainly ignored. This is not how European social dialogue, and the European integration project at large, should work.”

He added: “After the summits in Gothenburg and Porto, the exclusive Val Duchesse Summit continued the road of a concentration of dialogue of the EU institutions with so-called recognised cross-sector social partners. Why? The success of the European cross-sector social dialogue dates back a long time ago. Recently, it was rather marked by failure – failure above all to agree on future-proof digitalisation rules at work. We do not need social dialogue as for the sake of social dialogue, but to deliver for workers. In the absence of a functioning cross-sector social dialogue despite all the logistical, organisational and financial support it gets, the EU institutions should fix its rules of the game and require it to deliver, and re-consider their strategy and also strengthen support for sectoral social dialogue and independent unions.”