Brussels, 18/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - The Party of European Socialists (PES) presided by MEP and former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is organising a high level seminar on the theme “How can Central and Eastern Europe join Social Europe?”, to be held in Bucharest on 2 May at the Romanian parliament. In a press release, the PES specifies that the gathering, attended by Socialist and Social-Democrat leaders and the Heads of Government of several EU countries and candidate countries, Bulgaria and Romania, will be opened by Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and by Romania's Social-Democrat leader, Mircea Geona. A first session on “Combining employment flexibility with security” will unfold with the participation, in particular, of Hungarian Minister of Employment and Labour Gabor Csizmar (who will ask whether the European employment strategy is relevant to Central and Eastern Europe), Romanian Deputy Ioan Cindrea (who will speak of the problem of long-term unemployment in his country) and the Portuguese Minister of Social Affairs, Vieira da Silva (who will speak of the benefits of free movement of labour). A second session will be on “Investing in Social Europe: social policy as a productive factor”. The PSD vice-president and former Romanian minister of finance, Mihai Tanasescu, will raise the matter of the “catching up” to be done by Central and Eastern Europe, Bulgarian Minister of Social Affairs Emilia Maslarova the matter of childcare, and the Slovakian deputy, Maros Kondrot, will speak of the impact of tax policy on social policy.
The press release also notes that, although it is often assumed that the new (and future) Member States of Central and Eastern Europe “cannot afford good quality social protection”, the reality is “substantially different”. It also states that the Bucharest seminar aims to demonstrate the determination of Socialist and Socio-Democrat parties of the region to modernise and improve social protection for their citizens.