Brussels, 10/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - On 11-12 September in Paris, the French presidency of the Union and the European Commission are organising a conference on a subject currently at the heart of member states' concerns: workers' mobility in Europe. This conference will try and go further in implementing the common principles of flexicurity adopted by the European Council of 5 December 2007, by defining ways of working together. The presidency announced that these joint approaches will allow ways of securing transition phases for workers between two jobs, two statuses, two professions and two countries. These approaches may also be expanded during the Czech presidency and in the work programme on professional mobility that it has already set out.
The French minister for labour and solidarity, Xavier Bertrand and the Commissioner for social affairs, Vladimir Spidla, will open the conference. 22 participants will attend from a whole variety of different backgrounds (institutions, social partners, enterprise, researchers etc. Laurent Wauquiez, the French Secretary of State for employment, Petr Necas, Czech minister for labour and social affairs, Sven Otto Littorin, the Swedish minister for employment and Xavier Prats Monne, the director of the European Commission's “employment/mobility” service will close the conference: http://www.ue2008.fr (G.B./trans/rh)