Informal meeting of the Council of Ministers for Labour of the Twenty-five

Meeting with the social partners and the NGOs. The meeting of the social partners made it possible to discuss the positive and negative aspects of globalisation.  They also insisted on the improvement of quality of life at work while productivity increased, the need to review the work organisations and to find a balance between professional life and family life. The participants agreed that general European rules should be drawn up to provide a framework for “flexicurité” (flexibility + security).  In short, the need to promote the notion of “a decent job” in the international trade regulations was affirmed. The NGOs, on their part, asked for more interest to be taken in the notion of well-being at work, in the image of what was taking place in Finland, and that a common European strategy be defined regarding mental health at work. They also insisted on the need to balance the decisions towards more flexibility, with guarantees in terms of social security.  Finally, they requested seeking a greater reconciliation of family life  and professional life and the perspective of genre be taken into account in the development of social protection systems.
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ealth in Helsinki, publishing that an exceptional meeting would be held among Ministers in Brussels, dedicated to the directive on working hours. The meeting is to be held at the beginning of the month of November. The informal meeting at Helsinki was arranged on the occasion of a series of bilateral meetings which concerned, above all, the dossier between the Finnish Minister Ms Filatov, the French Minister Mr Larcher, the German Minister Mr Müntefering (Germany is to succeed Finland at the he

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