Conference of European Churches - Office of Communications

Press release No. 08-10/e

28 February 2008

Jointly issued with COMECE

Churches encourage the European Union towards a much broader approach to employment policies

Dialogue with EU Commissioners Ján Figel’ and Vladimír Špidla

On the eve of the meeting of the Council of the European Union on Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs, representatives and experts from the Churches in Europe discussed today in Brussels with the European institutions the modernisation of European employment policies, which shall provide a mutually supportive combination of security and flexibility, called “flexicurity”. The Churches stressed the need for a much broader approach in European employment policies.

Vladimír Špidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities explained that flexicurity gives the opportunity to protect workers in the labour market, to promote equal work opportunities between men and women, strengthening family life and fighting against poverty. Špidla underlined that the main aim of flexicurity is not merely to protect workers against precarious situations but to protect human dignity. Flexicurity is focused more on society than on the labour market. This concept, as highlighted by Stefan Lunte, Assistant Secretary General of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), is rooted in the tradition of the Churches. In the socio-political arena it should be measured by the degree of progress made for the weakest participants in the labour market.

Rüdiger Noll, Director of the Church & Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) explained that the suggested employment policies depend on a very high level of mutual trust, which makes it necessary to involve all groups in society, not only employers and trade unions but also churches and diaconal organisations. He also said that churches are concerned about the increasing segmentation of the labour market, with more and more precarious employment situations and the growing marginalisation of specific groups, such as long term unemployed, less skilled people or people with a migration background.

The EU Commissioner for Education and Culture, Ján Figel, stressed that education can contribute to make the flexicurity initiative successful in all the countries and regions of the EU.

Professor Gerhard Wegner, director of the Social Sciences Institute of the Evangelical Church in Germany, in the Dialogue Seminar explained that the institutions of society (social security offices, job centres, youth departments etc.) must propose stronger empowerment approaches in order to improve opportunities for people to participate in society, particularly in the labour market.

Bishop Ludwig Schwarz SDB of Linz launched an appeal to protect the work-free Sunday as a cultural heritage of Europe and underlined that the human being is not only created as an individual but also open to community. “Only free time shared with others gives human beings in their relationships to others its full dignity.”

MEP Jacek Protasiewicz expressed the expectations that churches help people find their way in the modernised labour market and to face its changes (the importance of life long learning). He also said that it is important to strengthen the ethical dimension of the relations between employees and employers.

Ms Bozica Matic from the Permanent Representation of Slovenia to the EU said that it is a time to start to implement flexicurity and to put it into practice together with all stakeholders including churches and religious communities.

The dialogue between Churches and EU Institutions took place in the Berlaymont building of the European Commission, in the presence of the social partners, represented by Bussineseurope (UNICE) and European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) who offered their opinion as to how to implement the concept of flexicurity.

Recognising that globalisation, demographic, technological and labour market developments are challenging Europeans to reflect on a more flexible labour market and measures for increased protection of the social rights of employees, the Dialogue Seminar concluded that whilst recognising the achievement of common principles on flexicurity there is a still a long way to go in order to translate commonly shared values into concerted policies. The dignity of the human being and protection of the most vulnerable in the labour market must be the starting point of the implementation measures.

*****

For further inquiries contact:
Ms. Elizabeta Kitanovic
Church and Society Commission of CEC
Ecumenical Centre
Rue Joseph II, 174
BE – 1000 Brussels
Tel: +32 2 230 17 32
e-mail: eki@cec-kek.be

COMECE is the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community. It is made up of Bishops delegated by the Catholic Bishops' Conferences of the European Union and it has a permanent Secretariat in Brussels.

The Conference of European Churches (CEC) is a fellowship of some 120 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Old Catholic Churches from all countries of Europe, plus 40 associated organisations. CEC was founded in 1959. It has offices in Geneva, Brussels and Strasbourg.

The Church and Society Commission of CEC links member churches and associated organisations of CEC with the European Union’s institutions, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, NATO and the UN (on European matters). Its task is to help the churches study church and society questions from a theological and social-ethical perspective, especially those with a European dimension, and to represent common positions of the member churches in their relations with political institutions working in Europe.