New actors within the European Employment Strategy (EES): the presence of the legislative power and trade unions in a coexistant dialogue in Luxembourg (2005-2008)

The appropriation of the Lisbon agenda 2010 by the legislative power and its participation in the elaboration of the National Reform Programmes (NRP) of 2005 and 2008 go hand in hand with an increasing parliamentary involvement in EU dossiers. In the context of the Lisbon treaty, this involvement will potentially increase. As regards the debates that have surrounded the Lisbon Strategy, it is shown that Luxembourg’s House of Representatives brought together both representatives from the government and the legislative power with the civil society to generate a debate on the future reforms to be put forward. Considering the panoply of actors involved, it is further argued that the resulting dialogue does coexist with more traditional and institutionalized instruments of dialogue that have embodied the consensus-seeking “Luxembourg social model”.