Budapest, 12 February 2010 – A conference was held in Budapest on 10 and 11 February entitled “The Challenge of informal economy in Europe” within ITUC/PERC-FNV project. The conference was organized by PERC, FES and Hungarian trade unions. There were participants from 16 countries and participants from Croatia were Domagoj Ferdebar, Economic Policy Adviser (UATUC) and Goran Bakula, Economy Adviser (NHS).

The conference consisted of several thematic workshops. Before the workshops, representatives from Ukraine, Serbia and Domagoj Ferdebar from Croatia presented the success and failure of trade unions in dealing with informal economy during the project. The topics of the workshops were: government’s policies to reduce informal economy, social dialogue and trade union strategies for meeting the challenge of informal economy, approach to workers and organizing workers, changes in trade union strategies and structures, interest and services for special groups of workers (domestic workers, self-employed, migrants, etc.).

The conference marked the end of the three-year project dealing with grey economy. Domagoj Ferdebar from the UATUC, Goran Bakula from the NHS and Milica Jovanović from HUS participated in the project from its beginning.