EU Presidency Speaking Notes - United Nations ECOSOC Panel Discussion: "UN system role in promoting employment and the decent work agenda in national strategic frameworks: the case of Latin America"

• Portugal will be speaking on behalf of the European Union.

• The European Union would like to start by thanking the panelists for their very informative contributions.

• The EU is very pleased to participate in today's panel discussion on the role of the UN system in promoting employment and the decent work agenda in national strategic frameworks

• The promotion of decent work for all is one of the key means of fostering development, poverty eradication and social cohesion.

• Decent work is at the same time a matter of employment and social protection and of governance.

• The EU supports the ILO initiative on Decent Work Country Programmes and equivalent employment and social policy action plans/agendas, as these contribute to strengthened ownership by partner countries by reflecting national needs and priorities and by ensuring the involvement of employers' and workers' organisations and of relevant parts of civil society

• The EU underlines that it should encourage and support the worldwide ratification and implementation of the ILO Conventions, on core labour standards and other Conventions that have been classified as such by the ILO, through technical cooperation and support for the strengthening of the ILO supervisory mechanism, including better publicity, more effective follow-up and more widespread use of the findings of the supervisory mechanism.

• The EU recognizes that it should, in a more systematic way, take the findings of the ILO supervisory mechanism into account in its international relations;

• The EU considers that the Decent Work Country Programmes are a key tool for the implementation of Decent Work throughout the world. Therefore, the EU believes that an evaluation of the first steps of the implementation of the Decent Work Country Programmes is important for the further implementation of measures that lead to the betterment of the programme.

• We should also identify best -practices to help us improve the future implementation of the program.

• Of course we consider that a permanent evaluation and follow up of the Decent Work Country Programmes is fundamental.