Predominantly unnoticed by public opinion in the European Union member states, a form of cooperation has been developing between trade unions and employers at European level which could, in the long term, turn into a fully-fledged industrial relations system. 

Jon Erik Dølvik of the Institute for Applied Social Sciences in Oslo (FAFO) describes in his book An emerging island? - ETUC, social dialogue and the europeanisation of trade unions in the 1990s the history of this relationship, the main protagonists of which are, on the trade union side, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and, on the employers’ side, the European umbrella organisations UNICE and CEEP.

Dølvik, who spent a period working in the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) in Brussels, was able to observe at close quarters the development of this burgeoning European-level relationship, his main focus of interest being the ETUC.  In his book he also describes the European political background and circumstances without which these developments could scarcely have taken place.

This book is also available in French and German

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