Abstract
The paper explored some of the issues related to the effectiveness of National Social Dialogue Institutions in presenting meaningful policy input that influences the ensuing output through the policy-making process (so, restricted to their ‘output legitimacy’). It has explored three dimensions of effectiveness: relevance, operational effectiveness and quality of services delivered. The comparative analysis of these dimensions across a number of Social and Economic Councils in Europe allowed to formulate some recommendations on how to best secure their effectiveness.