Tapia, Maite

On 26 September 2006, the European Commission [1] published the monitoring report (190Kb PDF) [2] on Bulgaria and Romania’s readiness for EU membership. The report shows that both countries have made considerable progress during the past months, escalating their efforts to complete their preparations for EU membership. Both states are ready to become members of the European Union on 1 January 2007, as scheduled in the Treaty of Accession [3] signed in 2005. The accession [4] of Bulgaria and Romania will represent the fifth enlargement [5] of the EU. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/european-commission [2] http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2006/sept/report_bg_ro_2006_en.pdf [3] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:L:2005:157:SOM:EN:HTML [4] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/accession [5] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/enlargement

In May 2006, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities [1] published a report entitled ‘Making work pay’: debates from a gender perspective (2.7Mb PDF) [2]. The primary policy context for this report is the Commission’s Communication ‘Modernising social protection for more and better jobs – a comprehensive approach contributing to making work pay’ (COM[2003], 842 final) (238Kb PDF) [3]. The objective of the report is to develop the gender perspective in the debate on labour supply. [1] http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/index_en.html [2] http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/publications/2006/ke6905836_en.pdf [3] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2003/com2003_0842en01.pdf

The 1994 OECD Jobs Strategy [1], which mainly focused on general reforms aimed at supporting the overall functioning of the labour market, placed little emphasis on more targeted reforms. Nevertheless, over the past decade, concern has been growing about the low employment rate [2] of certain groups of people, such as women, older workers, young people and immigrants. The OECD Employment Outlook 2006 – Boosting Jobs and Incomes [3] reviews policies that particularly affect the labour market performance of these groups and analyses their influence on employment rates. [1] http://www.oecd.org/document/0/0,2340,en_21571361_36276310_36954432_1_1_1_1,00.html [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/employment-rate [3] http://www.oecd.org/document/38/0,2340,en_2649_34731_36261286_1_1_1_1,00.html