On its Plenary Session held on June 24, 2016 Economic and Social Council adopted two resolutions devoted on the activity of Bulgaria in the framework of the European Semester.
One of them, developed on its own initiative, is devoted on “Institutional Mechanisms for Inclusion of Social Partners and other Civil Society Organisations in EuropeanSemester”. The aim of the resolution is to analyses the stage of institutionalized participation of trade unions, employers and civil society in the consultations process on the key documents and decisions as the National Reforms Plan and the Annual Development Report. That was underlined by the rapporteur on the resolution Luben Tomev. He emphasized as well on the need of synchronization of the processes within the European Semester at European and national level. The inclusion of the social partners and civil society in Bulgaria in these processes should be activated and extended consultations should be set up following the European model of consultations within the European Semester.
Marinela Petrova – Director of Directorate “Economic and Financial Policy” at the Ministry of Finance – special guest of the ESC Plenary Session, agreed with most of the recommendations presented in the resolution. She called the social partners to be even more active in written consultations. She explained that the government organizes written consultations within the European Semester. Marinela Pertova stressed also that the ESC resolutions on m European Semester that have been adopted in the last five years were useful for some governmental decisions.
The last resolution was adopted unanimously by the Plenary Session and all agreed that more active and institutionalized involvement of social partners and civil society within European Semester will lead to their enhanced commitment and responsibility concerning the implementation of the goals and tasks for reforms and development.
The second resolution of ESC is related to the new recommendations of the Council of European Union to Bulgaria for 2016.
