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Informal Meeting of the Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs,
Villach, 19 – 21 January, 2006

This meeting is already finished. Press releases, the Presidency Conclusions and other related documents are available at the end of this website.

The meeting is divided into two parts, an employment part as well as a social policy one.

The section concerning employment policy is organized under the key topic "Flexicurity".  Assuming that a corresponding social safety net represents an essential foundation for flexibility in the labour markets, there will be a discussion on the compatibility of the European Social Model with the safeguarding of European competitiveness.

There is a special focus on an exchange of experience regarding the ability for integration of a Flexicurity-based approach in the individual national employment systems. There will furthermore be a discussion about common problem areas on a European level resulting from the consequences of the "new international division of labour" against the background of globalization. By way of conclusion, there will be a discussion on the possibilities of common policies and fields of action on a European level as well as in the framework of the Flexicurity approach.

The social policy part will deal with the social dimension of the revised Lisbon strategy.

In the area of social protection and integration, the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is currently used on a European level in three areas:

- OMC for Social Iintegration (since 2000);

- OMC in the area of Pensions ("quality and long-term financial viability of old age retirement systems", since 2001);

- the beginning application of OMC for the future of the health system and long term care (since 2004).

In order to better coordinate the processes in the social area among one another, and in order to appropriately adapt them to the Lisbon strategy, a Streamlining course was decided upon in 2003, to run until 2006. It is the task of the Austrian Presidency to conclude this Streamlining and to adapt it to the newly oriented strategy of Lisbon. In this context, the discussion process for the European model of society before the Informal Meeting of Heads of states or governments on 27 October 2005 in Hampton Court as well as its results will also be considered.

In December 2005 the European Commission has adopted a communication in order to propose the new common objectives and working methods in the area of social protection and inclusion.

It is on this basis that a discussion at the meeting of social ministers in Villach is to focus on how to optimize the co-efficiency of the new Lisbon strategy with the streamlined process in the field of social protection and integration, in order to further develop the European Social Model in the interest of the citizens as well as to develop acceptance for the European Union.



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