The involvement of the social partners at the European level is organised around three different types of activities:

• tripartite consultation, which comprises the exchanges between the social partners and the European public authorities;

• consultation of the social partners, which covers the activities of the consultative committees and official consultations in the spirit of Article 153 TFEU (Treaty on the functioning of the European Union);

• the European social dialogue as such, which is the name given to the bipartite work of the social partners, whether or not it stems from the official consultations of the Commission based on Articles 154 and 155 TFEU.