European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

File:European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions logo.svg
Agency overview
Formed	2 June 1975 (1975-06-02)
Jurisdiction	European Union
Headquarters	Loughlinstown, Dublin, Ireland
Agency executives	Juan Menéndez-Valdés, Director Jerzy Ciechański, Chair of the Governing Board
Key document	Council Regulation (EEC) No 1365/75
Website	eurofound.europa.eu

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) is an agency of the European Union which focuses on managing research, gathering information, and communicating its findings.

It was set up by in May 1975 by the European Council to help improve living and working conditions across Europe, and was one of the first bodies established to work on a specific subset of EU policy. It is headquartered in Loughlinstown, County Dublin, Ireland.

Role and mission

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions describes its role on its own information page as follows:

To provide information, advice and expertise – on living and working conditions, industrial relations and managing change in Europe – for key actors in the field of EU social policy on the basis of comparative information, research and analysis.

Organisation

It maintains a number of specialized operations monitoring and measuring conditions in Europe, including:

• the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO)
• the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO)

  Regular surveys on European working conditions, quality of life, and company policies on working time issues (the first working conditions survey was carried out in 1990)

• the European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC)
• the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)

The offices of the Foundation (map) are located at Loughlinstown House, Wyattville Road, Dublin 18.

Governance

The Foundation is overseen by a Governing Board, Director, and Deputy Director. The Governing Board meets once a year to set budgets and policy, and to decide on one-year and four-year work programmes. The current Director, Juan Menéndez-Valdés, was appointed in December 2010. The Deputy Director is Erika Mezger. The Foundation budget (20.2M euros in 2007) comes from the general European Commission budget.

References

• "About the Foundation" page from the official website of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
• The monthly newsletter offered by that site
• "Surveys" page from the official website of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions