13. Insists that the development of skills and competences throughout the lifecycle is best served by a rights-based approach to active labour market policies and lifelong learning, comprehensive health and safety at work, universal and equal social and workers’ rights for everyone, a work/life balance and reconciliation of work and non-work life, improving the quality of employment and well-being at work instead of an approach of ‘boosting labour mobility’ and promoting flexicurity; insists that the EU skills and jobs agenda must be closely linked to robust supply and demand side measures to promote a green and social economy and respe ...[+++]ctive industrial and regional policies for sustainable development, rather than a mere strategy of ‘anticipating change’; calls on the Commission to initiate a Community strategy proposing measures that encourage the creation of environmentally and socially sustainable jobs in the ‘green’ and ‘white’ economies;

The theme of the event and its conference is linked to the EU2020 smart and inclusive growth priorities, in particular the "Youth on the Move" flagship initiative, focusing on youth employment and talents, and on the added value of labour mobility and life-long learning for all ages (job–to-job and geographic mobility) to enhance the labour market efficiency.

The revised Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs highlights occupational and geographical mobility as useful mechanisms to boost growth.

R. whereas the fact that the freedom of movement of workers constitutes a right inherent in European citizenship cannot be used to justify the validity or fairness of labour mobility as a strategy to balance supply and demand in employment in the EU, a strategy whose paradoxical result is that the most highly qualified people in the less prosperous regions and countries migrate to the more prosperous countries,

Firstly, they aim to expand occupational mobility and skills development, by ensuring that education and training systems become more responsive to the labour market, competence development strategies for workers are drawn up, learning is recognised wherever it is acquired and qualifications are more easily transferable, and by more human resource investment in less advanced regions.

It is therefore essential to ensure that the mix of learning opportunities is responsive to the need to ensure both employability and adaptability of workers throughout their working life, thereby enhancing their capacities for occupational mobility (Annex II, pt.2).