National Trade Union Involvement in the European Semester Opening up the European Semester? Trade unions between ‘Brussels’ and domestic politics

摘要: ‘Involvement of Trade Unions in the European Semester’(INVOTUNES) was a two-year European Commission-funded research project (2) aimed at examining the involvement of national trade union organisations in both the European and national cycles of the European Semester process (hereafter referred to as ‘the Semester’). The timeframe covered by the project is the period between 2014 and 2018, which largely corresponds to the five-year term of the Juncker European Commission. The analysis considers two policy areas addressed in the Semester that are particularly relevant for the trade union movement: a) employment and wage setting; and b) social protection and social inclusion. The data has mainly been gathered on eight countries, for which in-depth case studies were conducted by country teams: Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Sweden.