The first seminar for BOSMIP IV took place in Belgrade, Serbia on 15-16 September 2011, with a discussion on taxation and social dialogue. Mr Rudolf Krickl, the expert from IV, dealt with the general situation in Austria regarding taxation issues and late payments, as well as the late payment directive in the EU. Mr Guillaume Cravero, BUSINESSEUROPE, discussed social dialogue, work by the European social partners, activities of advisory committees and official consultations and tripartite consultation. The second day was spent in working groups tackling concrete problems in Serbia and looking at ways to create synergies with European and EU27 partners.

WORKSHOP ON GOOD PRACTICES OF SOCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE EU: The seminar organised by BOSMIP IV with the partners: Croatian Employers' Association (HUP – CEA) and Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia (UATUC). The Project workshop on good practices of social dialogue in the EU was organized in Split, Croatia on September 28-29, 2011. Experts coming from partner organizations from Belgium presented to the national participants the Belgian model of social dialogue, the key characteristics of which is its bipartism. Ms. Michele Klaus from Federation of Enterprises of Belgium spoke about the experiences of Belgian employers in bilaterial negotiations with the trade unions and their activities directed at the Government. She emphasized that in Belgium, at this moment, social dialogue is focused on extending the working age, job creation, adequacy of automatic wage indexation system and financing of the leave system. Ms. Siska Vandecandelaere, representative of the Economic and Social Council of Belgium (CCECRB) presented that body and its activities and emphasized the importance of the autonomy of social partners in shaping social policies in Belgium. HUP and UATUC representatives also discussed options for improvement of bilateral cooperation and other common future activities in BOSMIP IV project.

On 20-21 October BOSMIP 4, a business support programme co-financed by the European Commission and run by BUSINESSEUROPE, organised a workshop in Prishtina, Kosovo. The workshop of 1.5 days was organised with KPK, the Confederation of Kosovo Employers and the ILIRIA University. Dirk Jacobs, from FoodDrinkEurope, was invited as an expert on the food and drink industry in Europe. Food and drink are a key industry in Kosovo and the largest export sector of the country. Juhapekka Suutarinen, from EK, presented SME policy in Finland and the EU, as well as a best practice case study on an entrepreneurial Finnish university.

On 24 and 25 November 2011 the fourth BOSMIP IV seminar took place in Skopje, FYROM, attended by the FYROM Minister of Labour. The main topics included the role of representative Employers and Trade Union Organizations in the energy and metal industry sector, Labour conditions- industrial relations and social dialogue on the sector level (labour intensive sector) and investment in alternative Energy a new way employment and environment protection. Speakers included Ms Marianne Korsby Clasen, of DI, Danish Industries and Dr Schnitzer of IV, Austrian Industries. The second day included two workshops, one on best practices from Denmark and how to use these ideas in FYROM, the other on innovation and energy efficiency using case studies.

This conference aims to analyse, make known and inform Albanian businesses and their decision making bodies regarding the difficulties and risks that they face in the situation of crisis that the European economy is actually passing through. The conference will also propose ways and alternatives of carefully managing the situation for bailingout and/or avoiding the crisis situation. The activity intents also to explain to Small and Medium Enterprises with limited managerial capacities, the techniques and managerial alternatives for assessing and avoiding the risks.

In Sarajevo, on 15-16 March 2012, BOSMIP IV organized a seminar on the “Role and Importance of Social Dialogue in the Democratization of Society”. The conference organised by APBiH was attended by business people as well as trade union and government representatives. The conference aimed to discuss the merits of the creation of a national economic council. Various actors from Bosnia and Herzegovina attended the seminar to discuss ways to ensure a national economic council set up following up on previous initiatives in the past. Experts from BUSINESSEUROPE and VBO-FEB attended to share best practices and experiences from the EU level and the Belgium level.

On 22-23 March 2012 BOSMIP IV organised the 7th and last workshop under the BOSMIP IV programme on “Energy efficiency for sustainable development and environmentally friendly society” in Budva, Montenegro. Experts included Mr Ton van der Wijst, representative of SER, the Netherlands and Mr Godfried Prieckaerts, representative of VNO-NCW, the Netherlands. Topics included: Energy in the Netherlands: transition to sustainable energy including social partners to further the debate and Voluntary Energy Saving Agreements: obligations of enterprises, associations and Government. A presentation was also given by a member of the Ministry of environment as well as the Environmental Protection Agency of Montenegro.

Page under construction

Page under construction

Page under construction