Mrs Pabedinskienė said that the EU and member states had to adopt measures to further stimulate economic growth, job creation and employment to make Europe a more competitive place for industry and supportive of investment. In her words, in order to implement the objectives of Europe 2020 it is necessary to consolidate the common market policy, encourage economic integration, develop a strategy for expanding industries and small and medium-sized enterprises – all this will lead to job creation and employment. Mrs Pabedinskienė claimed that it was vital to ensure the interaction and integrity of employment and education policies in order to solve the problem of matching skills and labour market needs and reduce structural unemployment.
The proposal to develop European platform to enhance EU cooperation in the prevention of undeclared work was also presented to the Council. This is an issue of high importance to Lithuania. On 17-18 September in Vilnius, the Ministry of Social Security and Labour hosted a conference "How to make formal work attractive". At the conference the heads and representatives of the International Labour Organisation, the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development, European countries, the European Commission, international and European social partners discussed and shared their good practise in dealing with undeclared work and sought ways how to move from informal work to declared work. Mrs Pabedinskienė said that EU member states play a key role in solving the problem of undeclared work. So, it is important that EU member states cooperate and share their good practice in seeking the most effective measures to solve this problem. She added that this activity should involve the competent institutions of EU member states and these institutions should exchange their good practise and useful information, improve expert knowledge and carry out a study in this field, while EU social partners should be given the status of observers.
On 17-18 October, Minister Pabedinskienė visited the Italian city of Turin and took part in a high-level conference where she discussed the exercise of rights enshrined in the European Social Charter. The conference brought together politicians, representatives of the Council of Europe and EU institutions by giving them an opportunity to address the role of the European Social Charter in consolidating social rights during a period of crisis and crisis exit. Mrs Pabedinskienė is confident that this conference will play a key role in helping to restore citizens' support for democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights as well as the balanced distribution of positions by involving citizens in the exercise of the Charter's rights.
http://www.socmin.lt/en/news/minister-a.-pabedinskiene-r8hw.html
