1. S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN K ICK - OFF MEETING 2014 L UXEMBOURG, C ONSEIL ÉCONOMIQUE ET SOCIAL, 23-24 J ANUARY 2014 P ROJECT P RESENTATION D R. V ASSIL K IROV, P ATRICK T HILL CEPS/INSTEAD Collective Bargaining and Employment policies research unit

2. 2 M AIN O BJECTIVES S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN Eurosofin aims to: to produce a better understanding of social dialogue in the banking sector in terms of anticipating changes, adapting training and efficiency requirements, exchanging good practices among the participating partners and reinforcing social standards both within the financial sector and its institutions.

3. 3 T HE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES Increase the knowledge about the concrete forms and mechanisms of social dialogue in the banking sector in order to better anticipate and manage cases of restructuring; Initiate debates in the framework of challenges at sector level and the strategic priorities outlined in the EUROPE 2020 strategy and its objective to produce smart growth and reinforce the involvement of social partners in the appropriation of the strategy; Establish a network of experts, practitioners, social partners, working in the finance sector through a web-based platform for exchange, information-gathering/sharing and this beyond the expiry of EUROSOFIN. S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN

4. 4 C ONTRIBUTIONS Multidisciplinary gathering a pool of researchers (industrial relations, political science, sociology and law) and representative actors from social dialogue with a rich experience of practice in their respective country; Comparative and transnational as it aims to both conduct research and case studies in the participating countries, as well as it analyses the various similarities and discrepancies; Covers a less-known country and absent in most international studies, Luxembourg, with a key international financial center embedded in a strong collective bargaining framework with new insights and comparisons to be gained. S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN

5. 5 C ONSORTIUM PARTNERS CEPS/INSTEAD (Centre d'Études de Populations, de Pauvreté et de Politiques Socio-économiques), Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg Working Lives Research Institute (WLRI), London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle Arbeitswelt (FORBA), Working Life Research Center, Wien, Austria ASTREES, Paris, France The Trade Union Federation from Banking and Insurance (FSAB), Romania (Federaţia Sindicatelor din Asigurări şi Bănci, FSAB), Cartel Alfa Support by social partners from all participating countries S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN

6. 6 P ROJECT METHODOLOGY EUROSOFIN is based on an approach combining: Research activities on restructuring in the banking sector - with the objective to better understand processes and challenges at EU level and in the examined countries (desk research and qualitative interviews) Discussion and debates about socially responsible restructuring - thorough the dialogue of researchers with social partners and the country events (seminars) Networking and a cooperation between researchers and social partners from the participating countries S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN

7. 7 D ISSEMINATION STRATEGIES National research reports are provided to social partners for discussion, feed-back, and dissemination Results are presented to researchers and a larger public (i.e. CEPS/INSTEAD workshop series) Organization of an international conference The creation of the web tool www.eurosofin.ceps.lu for sharing, gathering and presenting information, up-dates and datawww.eurosofin.ceps.lu Use of platforms of dissemination (METIS, Reinet, Liaisons Sociales Europe, IRshare Publications in peer-reviewed journals and book (2015-) S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN

8. 8 W ORKING PLAN Preparation of activities: teams, methods, kick-off (December 2013 – January 2014) Implementation phase: country studies (February 2014 – April 2014) and one-day country seminars in the participating countries with a presentation of the research assessment reports, discussion of cases studies on restructuring and good practices (May – July 2014) Follow-up Activities: online community of practitioners (June - October 2014), presentations (September - October 2014), final conference with participation of project partners, social partners, government representatives, etc. (November 2014) S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN

9. 9 Thank you for your attention S OCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN E UROPE : C ONTRIBUTION TO ANTICIPATION AND RESTRUCTURING - E UROSOFIN