Foundation seminar series

Bringing shared knowledge to European actors dealing with social themes

'The aim of the seminar series project is to provide opportunities for knowledge-sharing that could facilitate a better decision-making process in European social policy and help social actors at national level to meet the goals of the Lisbon Agenda.’
Willy Buschak, Acting Director

With this project the Foundation is:

• deepening its role as a forum for debate and discussion

• contributing to shared knowledge and experiences across the EU Member States

• offering representatives of the social partners and public authorities an opportunity to discuss European social issues and deepen their understanding of the implications at national level.

In 2004, the Foundation organised a seminar on 'Age and work - connecting the generations' which examined a variety of aspects of the issues being debated in some of the Member States. It compared national situations with European objectives and the views of employers, trade unions and representatives of public bodies. Participants included representatives of governments, workers and employers from Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

In 2005 the Foundation organised a seminar on the same topic for participants from the remaining EU Member States.

The involvement and experience of the participants allowed for a high level of debate during the seminar. Between sessions, three representatives from each country worked together as a team in preparing information on their national situation, which was presented to the other participants in the second session. The rich debate resulting from these presentations showed that while the problems were similar the way in which they were addressed had to take account of the national specificities.

In the framework of the four-year work programme adopted by the Foundation's Administrative Board in October 2004, the Foundation organised a seminar on the same topic for participants from the remaining EU Member States, in March and May 2005. The new seminar 'Towards a flexible and sustainable work organisation' takes place in October and will be open to all 25 EU Member States.