13TH CONGRESS OF THE EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION

9/29 - 10/2/2015

Caption 1. Address of the President of France on the 13th ETUC Congress

The 13th Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation was held under the slogan "Stand up in solidarity for quality jobs, workers' rights and fair society in Europe", and it was composed of four panel discussions entitled: Quality jobs for youth, Quality Employment for all, Fight against social dumping and the role of the ETUC on which topics of the next ETUC Action Program for period 2015-2019 were discussed, which included three pillars of: Pillar I: A strong economy for all working people, Pillar II: Stronger trade unions for democratic values and democracy at work and Pillar III: A core of ambitious social standards.

Caption 2. Members of RSS Solidarnost

Within the Congress, on the initiative of the Regional Trade Union Council “Solidarnost” for the first time in the Steering Committee a place for the unions members of RSS Solidarnost was given, which represents an exceptional result and recognition of the development of the union movement in this region. Also, the members of RSS Solidarnost held a meeting in relation to the current developments in the region and discussions and views regarding the congress debates were provided and also regarding the current situation in the Federation of Trade Unions of Montenegro an appropriate conclusion was adopted for which it was agreed that this issue should be put on the agenda of the plenary session of RSS Solidarnost which will be held in Skopje from 10 to 13 October 2015, and the colleagues from the Federation of Trade Unions Montenegro to be informed on such conclusions.

The Congress adopted the program for the next mandate of ETUC 2015-219 and also several resolutions that can be found at the following link were adopted: https://www.etuc.org/resolutions-adopted-etuc15-congress-paris.

The delegates on the Congress, out of which 42% women and also proper representation of the youth in the composition of the delegations, have shown solidarity towards solving the issues regarding the refugee crisis. The solidarity and the unity were particularly pronounced, with almost anonymously adoption of the congress documents and the election of the bodies.

Caption 3. President of CCM, PhD Zhivko Mitrevski with the newly elected ETUC General Secretary, Luca Visentini

Luca Visentini was elected on the position of the former General Secretary, Bernadette Segol, and Veronica Nilsson and Peter Scherer were elected as deputy General Secretaries.