In 2003 the ESS continued to intensify its international cooperation. The year was characterised by various activities dictated by the approach of the end of the pre-accession period prior to full EU membership.

The most frequent forms included active participation by ESS representatives at various meetings, workshops and seminars, practical training abroad in various areas, and visits and lectures by foreign experts to Slovenia. Numerous ESS staff members participated in various forms of information exchange in individual professional areas.

The following categories of ESS international cooperation were particularly important:

• participation in the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES);

• TWINNING partnership with Belgium’s VDAB (Flemish Public Employment Service) under the auspices of the European Union;

• cooperation with public employment services in central Europe;

• various other forms of cooperation and contact with public employment services in Europe (bilateral contacts) and cooperation within various European associations.

In 2003 the ESS was one of the two internal supervisors to took part in all WAPES managing board’s sessions in Europe. The central event for WAPES in 2003 was the May session of the World Congress (topic: promotion of employment - fight unemployment through building new relations between the PES and social partners) and the general assembly, which was organised by the Moroccan public employment service. The ESS actively participated at both sessions, particularly in the preparation of the final report of both internal supervisors (Austria and Slovenia) for the WAPES general assembly. The Slovene and Austrian employment services were elected internal supervisors for the next three-year term, i.e. until 2006. In October 2003 ESS staff presented a paper at a WAPES workshop in France (‘Management of skills for the PES staff’).

In 2003 the ESS, together with the Belgian VDAB (Flemish Employment Service) formulated concrete points of departure for cooperation. In July a group of VDAB experts visited the ESS (topics: cooperation with employers, commercial services, use of ICT to provide services for clients, quality management, ESF) in Ljubljana, Slovenia; the emphasis of the visit was primarily on exchanging examples of good practice. The activities continued in November 2003, when ESS staff visited the VDAB head office in Brussels. It was agreed then that two similar meetings would take place by the end of May 2004.

In January 2003 the ESS organised meetings of coordinators of this form of cooperation in Murska Sobota, Slovenia. At the meetings a plan of cooperation to be observed until the conference of the Directors General of public employment services in 2005 was formulated and unanimously adopted. Based on this plan, the ESS took part in workshops prepared by the Croatian PES (‘Cooperation of Public Employment Services in Enterprise Restructuring’, May 2003), the German PES (‘Change Management in Public Employment Services’, September 2003) and jointly by the Czech and Slovak PES (‘Mobility of the Workforce After EU Enlargement’, October 2003).

The ESS and the Austrian employment service jointly prepared the first part of the ‘Quality Management at the Regional and Local Levels’ workshop held in early October in Ankaran, Slovenia. There were participants from all eight public employment services. The first part of the workshop will be followed by the second part in Austria next year to continue and expand on the topic. The second part will also be prepared jointly by the Austrian and Slovene employment services.

Various other forms of cooperation and contact with public employment services in Europe (bilateral contacts) and cooperation within various European associations are outlined below.

ESS representatives participated at two meetings of directors of public employment services in the old and new EU member states. The meetings were organised by Greece and Italy.

With the operation of European institutions in the field of employment, the ESS, together with the European Commission and the Swedish public employment service, organised an extensive seminar/training session for representatives of public employment services in the new member states and the EU candidate countries in Bled, Slovenia, at the end of September 2003. The topic was employability as part of the European employment strategy, a preventive approach, individual plans for dealing with the unemployed, and information support for these plans. The seminar was attended by 45 participants from 12 countries.

In 2003 a number of ESS staff took part in study sessions on the issue of the ESF (Austria, Sweden) and study sessions and conferences related to EURES network. Bilateral contacts included study visits and meetings between managers of the Austrian and Slovene services in Vienna, and contacts between ESS staff and staff at the Croatian employment service. Within the trilateral conference of Directors General of the Austrian, Hungarian and Slovene employment services, a bilateral agreement on cooperation was signed in March by Maribor, Murska Sobota and Velenje ROs and the Styria AMS regional unit. ESS staff also participated in various sessions of the MISEP network (Mutual Information System on Employment Policies in Europe), the NRCVG network (Ploteus portal) and the IAEVG (International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance).