Flagship initiative "New Skills and Jobs" – Going local event - Stockholm, 16 September 2011

On the 16th September 2011, a joint seminar entitled “A Single Market for a Social Europe” was organized by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and European Commission at the Europahuset in Stockholm, as one of the "Going Local Events" regarding the Europe 2020 flagship initiative "New Skills and Jobs".

Some of the questions that have been taken in consideration during the seminar, with the a particular focus on the Swedish view on the issues raised were:

• the lagging behind of the free movement of people;
• social values in a context of high unemployment, austerity measures and social exclusion;
• a stronger social profile at European Union level.

One of the major conclusions of the seminar has been that the EU has an important role to play in the social field, as social problems cannot be solved by Member States alone, in order to realize the full potential of the internal market.