Informele Vergadering van Ministers van Werkgelegenheid en Sociale Zaken (en)

The Informal Meeting of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers to be held in Berlin from 18 to 20 January 2007 will provide the opportunity for an intensive exchange on the subject of "Good jobs". The theme is one of the focal points of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in relation to Germany's EU Council Presidency which include "further developing the European social model", "good jobs" and "equal opportunities". In doing so, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will be focusing on the goal of the Lisbon Strategy "to create more and better jobs in Europe" The issue on how to find adequate regulations for new types of employment is also the subject matter of the Green Paper on Modernisation of Labour Law recently presented by the EU Commission.

The theme is also suitable for carrying on the discussion launched by the Austrian and Finnish Council Presidencies about how to find the necessary balance between flexibility and security in the labour market, known as "flexicurity", with a view to defining common principles on flexicurity, as requested by the European Council in March of last year. The theme also touches upon current discussions on how the welfare state can provide guarantees for reconciling working life and family life under the changing conditions in the labour market which include new types of employment, interruptions in employment histories and maintaining the working capacity of older workers and workers with disabilities.