Hoofden van openbare diensten arbeidsvoorziening bijeen in Litouwen (en)
The Lithuanian Labour Exchange under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour together with the European Commission organize the Heads of Public Employment Services (HoPES) Meeting on 16th - 17th December. This is one of the employment events that Lithuania holds during the Presidency of the Council of the EU. The key issues of the meeting agenda are implementation of the “Youth Guarantee” initiative, following up to extraordinary meeting HoPES in Paris, the enhanced cooperation between Public Employment Services (PES), adoption of PES network work programme 2014, addressing the efficiency challenge, HoPES assessment report on PES capacities to implement the PES strategy “Europe 2020”. Ms Algimanta Pabedinskienė, Minister of Social Security and Labour and Mr Detlef Eckert, Director, DG Employment Social Affairs and Inclusion the European Commission, will welcome the participants of the meeting.
According to Algimanta Pabedinskienė, the Minister of Lithuanian Social Security and Labour, on the 9th of December the European Union, Social policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) reached a consensus that all the European Union Member States would participate at the constitutive activities of the Public employment services network in order to function effectively and to provide real added value. It was agreed on the cooperation strengthening of the Public employment services, formalising the current network of the European public employment services heads. Cooperation of Public employment initiatives will make possibilities to take concerted actions when modernising them and empowering to work together successfully under the conditions of economic crisis.
„I thing we are on the right way, that is why I encourage to continue to diminish the efforts by strengthening the cooperation between the Public employment services in order to achieve the goals“,- noticed the Minister of Lithuanian Social Security and Labour.
According to the Director of the Lithuanian Labour Exchange Mr Vidas Šlekaitis, the effectively working PES is an important factor of successful employment policy. „Modern life raises new challenges for PES. In order to be client-oriented and efficient organizations, they have to reorganize their activities, adjust new organizational models, strategies and processes to rapidly changing environment. Therefore PES as organizations have to change by modernizing delivery of services, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities, strengthening the cooperation and mutual learning. Partnership with employers, social partners, local government and public organizations is extremely important in implementing the “Youth guarantee” initiatives and strategies “Europe 2020” goals”, - noted the director of the Lithuanian Labour Exchange Mr Vidas Šlekaitis.
In the meeting, the delegates will exchange views on benchmarking/mutual learning progress report. It will be presented ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations), given an overview on the labour market situation in Lithuania.
On the second day of the meeting, two parallel workshops will be held. The Heads of PES will discuss about the efficiency challenge and how PES use labour market information. The workshops will be led by the United Kingdom and Croatia, Lithuania and Finland PES representatives.
The Public Employment Services (PES) collaboration at EU level dates back to 1997 when the European Commission set up an informal advisory group of the Public Employment Services (PES) in order to promote cooperation, exchange and mutual learning between its member organisations and to receive specialist feedback on policy initiatives in the employment field. The formalization process of the Public Employment Services (PES) currently is going on, after which it will be established a European Network of the Public Employment Services (PES) providing a platform for comparing their performance at European level, identifying good practices and fostering mutual learning in order to strengthen service capacity and efficiency.
HoPES Meetings are held twice a year during each Presidency of the Council of the EU. Meetings aim to ensure a constant and systemic cooperation between the European Commission and the Public Employment Services network.