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Conference "Social Services" – co-financed by the European Commission,
Vienna, 20 April 2006

On 20 April 2006 the Austrian Presidency organises jointly with the European Commission a conference, in which the ministers and experts of the Members States, of the European social partners and non-governmental organisations will participate. The aim of this meeting is to discuss the highly complex and sensitive field of social services of general interest, their importance and the legislative approach as well as to provide a framework for the future role of this type of services crucial for social cohesion.

On the one hand, social services will be examined from an economic perspective – and thus their contribution to growth and employment, i.e. the two top priorities of the renewed Lisbon strategy. In this context, the profound challenges posed by demographic and technological progress to these services and their financial sustainability will also be discussed.

On the other hand, the discussion will focus on the contribution of social services characterised by their special nature in the services sector (universal access to high-quality services affordable to everybody) to the combat against poverty and social exclusion. Emphasis will be given to the prominent role that these services play in establishing comprehensive social cohesion in Europe.

Finally, the categorisation of social services and their differentiation from other services of economic interest and above all the different regimes governing them (also in the context of the future Services Directive) will be important items on the agenda to realise the freedom of services and the free internal market in the future, while ensuring the continued existence and ongoing further development of social services with their specificities as an integral part of the European social and economic policy.

Due to the limited capacities of our room facilities and hence restricted number of participants the Federal Ministry of Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection is unfortunately not able to accept applications from interested parties, which do not belong to the determined group of participants.
However you can find the programme and an extensive background paper of the conference in the download section.
After the conference abstracts of the presentations will be available for downloading. Additionally conference proceedings will be published.



Downloads:

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