" The challenge facing European integration is to link up economic union with political and social union. A degree of ambivalence surrounds the European social dialogue: pronounced dead in some quarters, it has meanwhile been institutionalised at the highest level at the Tripartite Social Summit in spring 2003 and recently given rise to the ETUC and UNICE work programme. In this article the authors describe the shortcomings of the sectoral social dialogue in terms of inadequate national and European networks and the lack of binding force of its results. Social dialogue must aim to shape change and, by developing a stronger sectoral dimension, seek to take up more industrial policy topics with a view to reconciling competitiveness and social inclusion. An additional long-term orientation for the social dialogue, geared to triggering new developments by means of participation, can put in place the conditions for effective bargaining solutions. "

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