High Level representatives of the Labour Ministries of the CBSS Member States met on the 15th of June 2017 in Berlin, Germany under the auspices of the Icelandic Presidency of the CBSS, at the venue of the City of Hamburg Representation.
The meeting was opened by Mr. Þorsteinn Víglundsson, Minister of Social Affairs and Equality of Iceland and was held as a part of the joint event with the Baltic Sea Labour Forum (BSLF) Annual Round Table. As grounds for discussion, the Policy Recommendations’ paper on issues related to the labour market, based on proposals from BSLF Members, representing both trade unions and employer’s organisations in the Baltic Sea countries, Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC), European Union Strategy for Baltic Sea Region (EUS BSR), Policy Area Education and participants from the Swedish Institute Baltic Leadership Program “Labour mobility”, was delivered to the ministries in advance.
The representatives defined the key areas of cooperation in the field of labour and employment as follows:
Labour mobility: How to reduce brain drain? How can we “stimulate the brain circulation”?
Demographic challenges: How to handle and deal with senior policy and silver economy?
Knowledge supply: How can labour market forecasting, technological foresights and research help to tackle current challenges of the labour market?
Youth employment: How can we maximize opportunities for young individuals in the region? How do the labour markets and regions in Europe need to adapt to the youth’s needs?
Additionally, Bernd Hemingway, Deputy Director of the Council of the Baltic Sea Secretariat focused on migration issues related to the labour market, and highlight possibilities and challenges of the integration of migrants and people with special needs into the labour market.
Read the full adopted Declaration here.
For all presentations of the BSLF Roundtable, please visit the Download section.
See the CBSS Flickr for images from the event.