Welcome to Sedefop's skill set and match podcast.

I'm Panos Polyzoidis.

Synergies and complementarity, two notions that have been the holy grail for private business for decades, particularly in the world of large enterprises and conglomerates.

It has now become clear, though, that these two imperatives are equally important for the public sector,

especially when it comes to the most elaborate supranational organization the world has ever seen, the European Union.

Limiting waste of resources and making optimal use of them in the complex ecosystem of EU structures

and bodies is a target that the Union has been vigorously pursuing.

In line with this policy, the European Center for the Development of Vocational Training, SEDEFOP,

and the European Labour Authority, ELA, have formally agreed to further their partnership

by establishing a systematic framework for efficient cooperation.

To serve this cause, the executive directors of the two agencies

have signed a Memorandum of understanding in Thessaloniki,

in Greece, at Sedefop's seat.

To explain the significance of this memorandum and discuss how the two bodies work together

and how they plan to improve on that in the future,

we are joined now in the studio by Cosmin Boyanju, executive director of ELA, and his

opposite number at Sedefop, Juergen Zeebel. Welcome and thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.

It's a pleasure. Let's pick it up from the top, really. What have you signed and why is it important?

Well, you know, the European Labour Authority was established a few years ago. It's the youngest EU agency, so we are looking to express our mandate, to develop, to build on our mandate.

And that's why we looked at organizations with close similar mandates

and SEDAFOP is a natural one for us.

So that's why we signed this memorandum of understanding.

...