Seventh European regional meeting to be held in Budapest

GENEVA (ILO News) – Acknowledging Europe's increasing integration, the Governing Body of the International Labour Office (ILO) decided today to hold the Seventh European Regional Meeting in Budapest (Hungary) in February 2005 following Hungary's candidature.

Among the agenda items of the Meeting two ILO reports will be submitted for discussion to the participants. The first report will look at ILO activities and achievements in the period 2001-2004. The second report will focus on the different transitions women and men in Europe as a whole will have to face in the coming years: transitions from school to work (youth employment); from work to pension (labour force participation of older workers/pension reform); from work to work (flexibility/security) and from country to country (migration). Efficiently managing these transitions implies good governance including improved social dialogue processes.

The two reports will be available in late Autumn 2004.

The Government of Luxembourg, which will hold the EU Presidency during the first half of 2005, indicated that it would make the Meeting an integral part of its EU Presidency Agenda.

As the corresponding ILO Regional Office covers Europe and Central Asia, the geographical distribution of the participants to the meeting is vast (50 countries), extending as it does from Ireland in the West to Kyrgyzstan in the East. In terms of per capita GDP, the spectrum ranges from US$ 44,000 for Luxembourg to $1,250 for Tajikistan (2002).

ILO regional meetings, which convene every four years, are designed to examine ILO activities in the concerned region and identify strategies for improving the economic, social and employment conditions in the countries concerned.