Other event

Watch the webinar 'Have your say: the future of the European Pillar of Social Rights'

When?

Thursday, 15 October 2020

Online

Organised by

Eurofound; DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion; the European Commission Representation in Ireland; and the European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland

Event background

Eurofound has organised, together with DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, and the European Commission Representation in Ireland, a LIVE Webinar on the Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights on Thursday 15 October 2020 at 13.30-15.00 Irish time.

Director-General Joost Korte provided an introduction, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Maria Jepsen, Deputy Director at the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) and contributions from Paul Ginnell, Director of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland and Hans Dubois, Research Manager, Eurofound. The webinar included a LIVE online chat and Q&A.

About

The webinar is part of a series of events across the EU to prepare the European Commission’s Action Plan for the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). Drawing on the knowledge of panellists and discussion with participants during the webinar, Director-General Joost Korte of the European Commission’s DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion engaged with Irish stakeholders - in particular - to gather ideas to support a strong social recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

The European Pillar of Social Rights is the Commission’s key instrument to contribute to socio-economic recovery and resilience of the EU, also with a view to enhancing social fairness in the ongoing digital and green transitions. The Commission will present its Action Plan in early 2021.

Panellists

	Speaker: Joost Korte Joost Korte was appointed Director General for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour in 2018. Previously, he was Deputy Director-General of DG Trade and, before this role, the Dutch national served as Deputy Director-General at DG Agriculture and Rural Development Department, as well as in the Enlargement Directorate General. Joost Korte also spent several years in the Commission’s Secretariat General as Director responsible for the relations with the Council of Ministers and gained extensive experience in the Private offices of Sir Leon Brittan, Chris Patten and Danuta Hübner. A lawyer by training, he joined the Commission in 1991, following eight years of academic work on European law at the Universities of Utrecht and Edinburgh.
	Speaker: Maria Jepsen Maria Jepsen was appointed Deputy Director at Eurofound in 2019. Prior to this, she was Director of the research department at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), and assistant professor and research fellow at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). She is currently also associate professor in labour economics at ULB and external lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL). Her main research interests include gender studies, the impact of welfare states on labour supply, wages and working conditions, and more recently the European social dimension. Maria has also served as a coordinator on the European Commission tripartite advisory committee on health and safety at work. She holds a PhD in Economics and a Master’s degree in Econometrics from the Free University of Brussels (ULB).
	Speaker: Paul Ginnell Paul Ginnell has been Director of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland since 2018 and had been Policy Officer there since 2005. Paul is a member of EAPN Europe’s policy group and coordinates the Community Platform, a network of 30 national anti-poverty and equality organisations, and the Better Europe Alliance which engages national and European decision makers on key EU policy developments. Before coming to EAPN Ireland Paul was Coordinator of Westmeath EQUAL, and the Limerick Travellers Development Group and also worked with the Irish Traveller Movement, and in overseas development in Kenya and Sudan. Paul is a qualified Community Worker and has a Masters in Applied Social Studies.
	Speaker: Hans Dubois Hans Dubois is a Research Manager at Eurofound. His research areas include household over-indebtedness, healthcare, long-term care, social benefits, retirement, and quality of the local area. Before joining Eurofound, he was Assistant Professor at Kozminski University in Warsaw. He completed a PhD in Business Administration and Management at Bocconi University in Milan with a research stay at the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kiev. Prior to this, Hans was Research Officer at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies in Madrid. He studied both Economics and Medical Biology at the University of Amsterdam, with semesters at Harvard University and Universidad de Salamanca.