>The chapter deals with the impact of EC/EU institution-building on the interaction of the social partners in Europe，and how it attracted them to contribute to the “European social policy community”. Under the “Community method”，the traditional mode of EU governance，the social partners had a role to play in giving advice to policy-making. The instruments developed are the social dialogue，the Tripartite Conferences and other more informal ways of consultation in the process of legislation. With the signing of the Maastricht Treaty，the social partners at the EU level have gained the right to participate directly in the legislation process based on the social partnership procedure. In addition，in the Open Method of Coordination （OMC），a new mode of EU governance，the social partners，together with civil society organizations，are playing a pivotal role in the formulation，implementation，and overseeing of EU’s policy. This chapter presents a detailed analysis of the different roles played by the social partners under the three types of decision-making mechanisms，that is，the normal legislating procedure，the social partnership procedure and the OMC，thus illustrating the main characteristics of EU governance.