Brussels, 19/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - In compliance with a decision made by member states during the informal Social Council in Brdo (Slovenian) last January, the European Commission, on Monday 19 May, in strict collaboration with its European social partners, launched an initiative to help put flexicurity into practice at a national level. Its objective is to increase familiarisation and knowledge of the common flexicurity principles adopted during the December 2007 summit, following the Commission communication published in June 2007.
France kicked off on Monday. It will be followed by a variety of events in Sweden on 2 June, Finland 6 June, Poland 23 June and Spain at a date that still needed to be worked out. The Mission will present a draft report in October 2008 to the Employment/Social Affairs Council. The final report in will be in December and which will highlight the various policy approaches in the Member States and aim at proposing concrete suggestions to encourage the successful implementation of flexicurity policies. The timetable and progress reports drafted at the end of each of the visits will be made available online by the Commission focusing exclusively on this mission.
The mission will consist of 7 permanent members: 1) Employment and Social affairs Commissioner Vladimír Špidla, 2) Senator-Mayor for Ramouillet, Gérard Larcher, who is also the former French labour minister and representative of the forthcoming French presidency; Ms Darja Sencur Pecek, Lecturer in labour law and representative of the Slovenian presidency of the EU, (4) Xavier Prats Monné, director for employment, the Lisbon strategy and international affairs at the European Commission, (5) Ms Maria Helena André, Deputy Secretary General of the ETUC, (6) Ms Renate Hornung-Draus, president of Businesseurope's employment working group and (7) David Pascal Dion, an administrator at the European Commission. (G.B.)