Employers from the Organization of Employers of Macedonia  actively participate in the Project for Improving the effectiveness of bipartite and tripartite social dialogue.
The “Employment and Social Affairs Platform” (ESAP), is a regional project financed by the European Commission in the amount of 3 million Euro and jointly implemented by ILO and RCC in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The project, which begins its implementation in 2016 and lasts for 3 years, aims to strengthen regional cooperation and institutional capacities of administrations, employers’ and workers’ organizations, enabling them to develop and effectively implement labour market and social policy reforms in their EU enlargement process. The project team is based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Western Balkan economies share similar structural characteristics and features of labour markets, including high unemployment and labour force inactivity, underfunded active labour market policies, limited resources of public employment services and a mismatch between the demand and supply of labour. Employment creation remains an important challenge for all economies.
The increased focus of the enlargement process on enhanced economic governance is accompanied by the introduction of new instruments such as the Economic Reform Programmes (ERPs). This initiative will contribute to bringing the economies closer to EU practice, building strong ties in the process of EU integration and preparing them to fully participate and capitalize on future cooperation opportunities within the EU.
Regional cooperation remains an essential element of the WB economies’ stabilization and association process towards EU membership. Specifically, in the area of employment and social affairs, economies can share their experiences, learn from each-other, and through this optimize their policy making and implementation practices. Additionally, economies can work together to improve the preparation, monitoring and follow-up processes related to the ERPs and ESRPs.

Activities will add to on-going efforts of the ILO for developing governments’ and social partners’ institutional capacity to engage in effective social dialogue. The activities will seek to identify, capture and disseminate experiences and good practices regarding social dialogue institutions and processes.