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Bucharest Cooperation Process on Employment in South Eastern Europe

In October 2003, at a Ministerial Conference on Employment for SEE, the Ministers in charge of employment launched regional cooperation in this field by signing a Declaration that outlines the needs and the priorities for cooperation.

In order to implement the commitments of the Bucharest Declaration, a Permanent High Level Committee on Employment (PHLC) was set up, composed of Directors General of employment in the Labour Ministries and of the Employment Agencies in the eight SP beneficiary countries. The ILO and the Council of Europe (CoE) were mandated to organize and guide the technical work of the Committee, while the federal Belgian Government provided the funding.

The key task of this group has been the upgrade of employment policies in line with EU and international standards. For this purpose, each country prepares a country report on employment policy and the ILO/CoE team analyzes in depth two reports per year and issues recommendations for improvement. The other reports are subject to peer-reviews among the participating countries.

Documents

• Second Ministerial Conference on Employment in South Eastern Europe,
  21 October, Sofia [Draft Agenda & List of Participants]
  • Conclusions
• 4th Meeting of the Permanent High Level Committee, 22-24 September 2005
• 3rd Meeting of the Permanent High-Level Committee, 14-15 April 2005
• 2nd Meeting of the Permanent High-Level Committee, 12-14 January 2005
• Country Review of the Employment Policy of Albania , December 2004
• Country Review of the Employment Policy of Croatia, November 2004
• Report on the 1st Meeting of the Perm. High-Level Committee, Brussels 9-10 Dec. 2003
• Cooperation on employment in South East Europe: review of employment policies and of the performance of employment services in the Stability Pact's beneficiary countries, December 2003
• South Eastern Europe Ministerial Conference on Employent, (Photo of participants) Bucharest, 30-31 October 2003