Informele Raad Werkgelegenheid Belfast bespreekt werkgelegenheid

In July 2005, EU employment ministers met informally in Belfast, Northern Ireland, under the UK Presidency. The theme of the meeting was to find ways of increasing employment and improving social cohesion.

Employment and social affairs ministers met on 7-9 July 2005 for an informal Council, the first under the UK s six-month EU Presidency, which runs until the end of 2005. Ministers debated the current employment situation in the EU, agreeing that unemployment, standing at 19 million, is 'unacceptably high'.

They agreed that reforms need to be introduced to bring down this figure. Consequently, they discussed a range of practical measures to achieve this. This discussion was held within the context of the ongoing debate on updating the European social model and the EU s 10-year Lisbon strategy for employment and economic growth, launched in March 2000 (EU0004241F).

In addition, ministers viewed two projects in the Belfast area that had made progress in providing the local communities with successful employment and training support services: the Springvale Training Centre, which provides young and adult jobseekers with training to enable them to work in local companies; and the Shankill Jobs and Benefits Office, a project that provides advice on social security, careers, and helps people with disabilities to find work and young people to find holiday jobs.

Ministers also attended one of three themed workshops, designed to share best practice in the area of increasing employment and improving social inclusion for young people, older workers and people who are economically inactive. Ministers outlined the steps that had been taken in their own countries to improve the situation in this area.

A final plenary discussion focused on labour market flexibility and the need to ensure that social protection systems actively encourage people to move out of benefits and into work.

All participants described the meeting as 'very constructive' : it is intended that these debates will feed into discussions at the European informal summit on the European social model, which will be organised by the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair at the end of October.

The meeting was characterised by David Blunkett, UK minister for work and pensions, as an exchange for positive national experiences rather than a decision-making forum. Vladimir Spidla, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, stated: 'We are not trying to deconstruct the European social model but reconstruct it. Our meeting slogan over these two days in Belfast is active inclusion by reconstructing the social model. Europe equals unity in diversity. There is no single social model in Europe. There are several of them. All social models in Europe rest on their traditions, their history and their society.'

The meeting was preceded by a 'social troika' meeting, at which the social partners discussed the modernisation of the European social model, social inclusion and the crises that Europe is currently confronting.

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