Today, Thursday 18 January 2007, marks the opening of the Informal Meeting of Labour and Social Affairs Ministers chaired by Federal Minister Franz Müntefering. Federal Minister Müntefering has invited Ministers from the EU Member States, the EFTA countries – Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway – and the two candidate countries Turkey and Croatia to attend the Conference. Minister Müntefering begins by meeting the European social associations and social partners.
In the course of their Informal Meeting from 18 to 20 January at the Berlin Representation Office of Deutsche Telekom AG, Ministers from the 33 European countries will be discussing the topic "Good Work".
The topic is one of the three priorities the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has set for the German EU Council Presidency. They also include the further development of the European Social Model and equal opportunities.
The subject "Good Work" implements the Lisbon Strategy's objective to create more and better jobs in Europe. It addresses topical European debates on the shaping of labour law in conjunction with social protection, demographic trends and equal opportunities. The issues of appropriate regulations for new and other forms of employment are also treated in the Green Paper on Modernising Labour Law which was presented by the European Commission.
The topic is also suited to continue the discussion launched under the Austrian and Finnish Presidencies on how to find the necessary balance between flexibility and security in the labour market ("flexicurity") with the objective of arriving at a common understanding as requested by the European Council in March 2006.
With the two following EU Council Presidencies Portugal (2nd half of 2007) and Slovenia (first half of 2008) Germany is the third part of the so-called Troika, a Team Presidency for a period of 18 months which has assigned itself a joint programme of work. Equally balancing flexibility and security is one of the common objectives to be achieved by the Team Presidency.
Today, Thursday 18 January 2007, Federal Minister Müntefering, Portuguese Labour Minister José Viera da Silva and Slovenian Minister Marjeta Cotman begin by meeting members of the Social Platform (a union of social non-governmental organisations), the European Commission and representatives of the European Parliament. The discussion will focus on the present challenges in the context of "Good Work".
That event will be followed by a meeting with the associations of the European social partners which, in addition to representatives of the European umbrella associations, will also be attended by the President of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations Dr. Dieter Hundt and the Chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation Michael Sommer.
Tomorrow, Friday 19 January 2007, the main part of the Informal Meeting of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers will take place. A press conference scheduled for 6 o'clock p.m., hosted and chaired by Federal Minister Franz Müntefering, will present the most important results.
