Brussels, 2 May 2023
On Wednesday and Thursday, 3-4 May, Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica, and Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, will attend the informal meeting of EU employment and social affairs ministers (EPSCO) in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition to EU ministers, representatives from EU social partners, civil society, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, as well as the International Labour Organization and Eurofound, will also participate. The meeting will be chaired by the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The meeting’s first session will discuss how to prevent mismatches between skills and jobs in times of transition. This is an important consideration addressed in the context of the European Year of Skills. The EU agency for the improvement of living and working conditions (Eurofound) will present its findings on the matching of skills and jobs.
The second session will focus on how to enable adequate and sustainable social protection considering the demographic transition. Vice-President Šuica will present current Commission initiatives with regard to the demographic transition. Commissioner Schmit will present the Commission’s recent report on the implementation of the Council recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed. In addition, Anna Diamantopoulou, the Chair of the independent High-Level Group on the future of social protection and of the welfare state in the EU and former European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, will share the results of the group’s report.
A press conference with the participation of Commissioner Schmit will be live streamed around 17:00 CEST on EbS.
Source – EU Commission