The conference also discussed the outcomes of the European Semester 2012. Fintan Farrell, Director of EAPN delivered its contribution about the links between employment and poverty in the workshop dedicated to Jobless Households.
Three key points were raised by EAPN: the negative impact of hardening conditionality for receipt of social benefits, the need to ensure that there is a focus on the quality of jobs to avoid further development of informal labour markets and the need to work with NGOs to ensure inclusive labour markets. The conference conclusions, by representatives from the ILO, the OECD, and the Cyprus Presidency of the EU, amongst others, highlighted the need for a growth strategy, that includes publically funded job guarantees, automatically stabilising activation methods tailored to the individual, the negative impact of increased conditionality, as well as quality jobs with decent wages, and investment in new, sustainable sectors. The speeches, conference materials and Power Point presentations will soon be available http://ec.europa.eu/socialhere. For more information, please contact Amana Ferro in the EAPN Secretariat (amana.ferro@eapn.eu).
