Brussels, 22/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - "What Drives Change?" is the theme of the conference organised by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, on 23 October in Brussels. The European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC) will be launched on this occasion, to become operational in 2002. Participants at the conference include Maria Joao Rodrigues, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Portugal; MEP Bruno Trentin (PES, Italy); and Pedro Ortun, Director DG Enterprise at the European Commission. Over one hundred participants will gather to discuss the impact of globalisation on society, technological development and consumer demand, and in order to examine the initiatives that companies and organisations are setting up in order to be able to anticipate and adjust to change.
The launching of the EMCC will take place under the chairmanship of Raymond-Pierre Bodin, Director of the Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, and in the presence of Laurette Onkelinx, Belgian Minister for Employment (for the EU Council Presidency), Elisabeth Guigou, French Employment Minister, and representatives of the European social partners, Emilio Gabaglio (ETUC - European trade unions), Daniela Israelachwili (UNICE - European employers), Rainer Plassman (CEEP - public enterprise), Ian Little (European Economic and Social Committee), and Odile Quintin, Director General for Employment at the European Commission.