Foundation seminar series - Preparing for the future: maintaining employment in times of crisis, 2009-2010

Background

The global recession that began as a financial crisis and turned into an economic crisis already has had a severe impact on employment in the EU. Unemployment rates increased dramatically in the Member States throughout 2009 while announced redundancy procedures and lay-offs add further to the severity of the situation, making the outlook on employment developments rather gloomy.

Looking beyond the crisis, the European Commission urges all actors to implement ‘a shared commitment for employment’ with a view to ‘prepare the future’ [EC, Com (2009) 257 final]. Companies, workers and governments are directly concerned by the three key priorities developed at European level:

• maintaining employment

• upgrading skills

• increasing access to employment

Objectives of the seminar

The Foundation Seminar Series (FFS) aims to provide a forum for exchange between national experts, representatives of Trade Unions, Employers’ organisations and Governments, contributing therefore to develop a ‘shared commitment’ for employment in the current situation.

The FSS aims at highlighting concrete examples of how a joint approach could contribute to priorities such as maintaining employment and developing skills during the crisis.  The seminar will focus on present and past initiatives at European, national, sectoral and company level, within social dialogue and social partners’ actions.

Participants

Participation is by invitation only. Participants are representatives of governments, workers and employers from different Member States. Participants are committed to take an active part in two sessions: Session 1: 18-20 November 2009, European Foundation, Dublin**,** Ireland, and Session 2: 8-10 March 2010, Bonn, Germany.

Session 1: 18-20 November 2009, European Foundation, Dublin, Ireland

• Programme and presentations

• List of participants and speakers [.pdf, 142kb]

• Profiles of speakers [.pdf, 106kb]

• Profiles of participants [.pdf, 241kb]

• FSS concept paper [.pdf, 139kb]

Session 2: 8-10 March 2010, Bonn, Germany

• Programme with presentations

• Speakers profiles [.pdf, 356kb]

• Participants profiles [.pdf, 298kb]

• List of participants and speakers [.pdf, 144kb]