The Eurofound Forum 2022: Reformulating the future of work in Europe!

The Eurofound Foundation Forum 2022 recently took place presenting a rich agenda of discussion with a set of renowned guests from various business and policy backgrounds.

Entitled Recovery and Resilience in the EU - Back to the Future? The one day long forum shed light on numerous topics related to the future of employment and socioeconomic rights in Europe in light of the ongoing mega trends of digitalisation and the green economy. The ETF draws upon Eurofound’s work to inform its activities within the EU neighbouring regions. Moreover, both the ETF and Eurofound are part of the EU Agencies Network.

Organised by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, the Forum comes as a valuable opportunity to exchange views amongst policymakers alongside delegates of international organisations, think tanks and the private sector with respect to enhancing Europe’s overall resilience to crises and employment related disruptions. The forum sessions tackled questions of inequality, social protection, welfare and recovery from COVID. “….the COVID crisis has been an acceleration of transformation, especially in relation to remote working,” said Nicolas Schmit, EU Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights.

”…we need to have a very competitive European economy. But this has to go hand-in-hand with social convergence since it is important for our societies’ social cohesion..” added Schmit, in the course of his talk with Mary McCaughey, Head of Information and Communication Unit at Eurofound. In the same regard, he confirmed the importance of people’s right to have adequate work-life balance and even get disconnected if need be as part of labour’s social rights in the digital age and the era of teleworking,

On a side note, the forum has produced a background paper that contains the chief thematic areas of interests which were addressed alongside a set of concluding remarks based on prior policy research undertaken in preparation for the sessions, with a special attention paid to telework, protection against social vulnerability and achieving climate-neutrality and just transition.

Consisting of 8 sessions, the forum included the participation of representatives from, inter alia,  Microsoft, European Commission, European Investment Bank, Financial Times, and the European Institute for Gender Equality.

For a quick recap of the forum’s agenda and main discussion points addressed, see more: Foundation Forum 2022 | Eurofound (europa.eu)