Marjaana Valkonen to chair Dublin Foundation Administrative Board

Marjaana Valkonen, Director of the International Affairs department of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions - SAK, has been elected to chair the Administrative Board of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (the Dublin Foundation). Valkonen has been a member of the Administrative Board since 1995, serving as Chair from 1997-1998 and Deputy Chair since 1998.

Valkonen has been on the staff of SAK since 1979, serving in various capacities including Head of Organisational Development, Historian and Head of Administration and Development. She was appointed Director of International Affairs in spring 2001.

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions is a European Union agency based in Dublin. The organisation is administered by representatives from the labour market organisations and governments of all of the Member States and from the European Commission. The European social partners ETUC and UNICE are also involved in the work of the Foundation. Marjaana Valkonen explains the overall agenda:

"The main challenges in the work of the Dublin Foundation at the moment come from the European Union enlargement programme. Next year the Foundation's various research projects and the European Industrial Relations Observatory - EIRO will both be extended to cover all of the candidate countries. A new European Monitoring Centre on Change - EMCC, has also just begun operating at the Foundation."

The extensive reports on working conditions produced by Dublin Foundation are well known. Further reports of this kind are currently being prepared in all of the Member States on road haulage and the hotel and restaurant sector, and an interesting summary of reports on working conditions in all of the applicant countries will also be published before the end of the year.

For further details please contact:

Marjaana Valkonen, tel. +358 9 772 1306

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions