Social Affairs
Together with other the social partners, CEA has engaged in the social dialogue since 1987 within an informal working party. In 1998 the European Commission decided on the establishment of Sectoral Dialogue Committees promoting the dialogue between the social partners in the sectors at European level. The Insurance Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (ISSDC) was established in this context in 1999. The ISSDC comprises on the one hand the employers of the insurance sector represented by CEA, the Association of European Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Companies (ACME) and the European Federation of Insurance Intermediaries (BIPAR) and on the other hand the employees represented by Union Network International–Europa Finance (UNI-Europa). After a suspension of the ISSDC activities from mid-2004, the social partners submitted to the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the European Commission (DG EMPL) a joint statement “Declaration of the European social partners on the social dialogue on insurance” in November 2006. This Declaration which permitted the re-launch of the ISSDC activities in 2007, summarises the expectations of social partners as to the ISSD in terms of impact, value and follow-up and provides a series of insurance-related themes of common interest to be discussed within the ISSD.
Amongst the items of the Declaration is a working programme on facilitating the integration in the European social dialogue of social partners of the new Member States. In this respect two seminars with new Member States’ representatives of employees and employers will be organised in 2008. The objectives of the project are to render the social partners of the new Member States more familiar with the practice of industrial relations in the old Member States, and vice-versa, and to integrate these countries into the European social dialogue structures. Another item identified by the social partners as a topic for the ISSD in 2008 is demographic development, the focus relying on the changing age structure, which represents a challenge for the future, and on the future of pension insurance. CEA is also involved in other labour law-related issues.