News
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24/01/2006
Mission to Budapest
Hungary made good progress as far as the European Social Fund concerns. However, more effective coordination of the use of EU funds would help to make the best of allocated money.
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23/01/2006
Informal Council - Employment and Social affairs Villach (19-21 January 2006)
The key role of flexicurity (promoting both labour market flexibility and job security with social protection) in future EU competitiveness and labour relations was highlighted at the Informal Council on Employment and Social Affairs in Villach, Austria on 19-21 January.
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19/01/2006
Meeting in Villach
EU Social Affairs and Labour Ministers meet informally in Villach to discuss far reaching effects of globalisation, demography trends and technological development on European society.
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18/01/2006
Informal Council - Employment and Social affairs Villach (19-21 January 2006)
The Informal Council meeting will take place 19-21 January in Villach, Austria. The Employment and Social Affairs points will be taken on 20 January, beginning at 09h00. The morning meeting will be chaired by Federal Minister for Economics and Labour Martin Bartenstein (on flexicurity) and Federal Minister for Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection Ursula Haubner will chair the afternoon session (on the social dimension of the revised Lisbon strategy). The Commission will be represented by Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla.
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16/01/2006
Corporate Social Responsibility fights the unemployment
Commissioner Vladimir Spidla launched together with Bill Gates the first Microsoft Project aimed at fighting unemployment in Europe. Starting in Portugal the goal of the project is to provide 20 000 Europeans with new skills by 2010.
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12/01/2006
Is the Financing of Social Policies in the EU Sustainable?
Social policies represent by far the biggest item in the budgets of the Member States and have a major impact on living conditions in the EU. However, Europe's relatively poor economic and employment performance, as well as the rapid ageing of its societies, pose a serious threat to the sustainability of social policies. In preparation of the informal meeting of the European Council on the opportunities and challenges of globalisation (at Hampton Court on 27 October 2005), the Commission services reviewed the way in which social policies are financed in each of the Member States and the main challenges to which these financing arrangements have to adapt. The present paper "Sustainable Financing of Social Policies in the European Union" summarises the main conclusions of this review.
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12/01/2006
The EU and Roma - now online
The European Commission has launched a new website dedicated to the Roma. It aims to provide information on the EU's activities in support of the Roma, Gypsy and Traveller community across Europe.
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11/01/2006
Transitional Arrangements on the free movement of labour today
Commissioner Vladimir Spidla gave an update to the College on the current state of play as regards the assessment of the transitional arrangements on the free movement of labour today.
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22/12/2005
A new framework for the open coordination of social protection and inclusion policies
The ongoing debate about the future of Europe's social model has pinpointed the need to implement reforms to meet the major challenges confronting Europe's social protection systems and social inclusion policies. To make the common approach to those challenges stronger and more visible, the European Commission has presented new proposals for a new framework for cooperation between the Member States.
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21/12/2005
Economic migration in the EU - Commission presents a roadmap on Legal Migration
The European Commission adopted today a "Policy Plan on Legal Migration", jointly presented by Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and Vice-President Franco Frattini, responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security. This plan has been developed in order to comply with a request in the Hague Programme, the EU multi-annual work programme in the field of Justice, Freedom and Security. The Hague programme explicitly asked the Commission to present, before the end of 2005, "a policy plan on legal migration, including admission procedures capable of responding promptly to fluctuating demands for migrant labour in the labour market".