Ivailo Kalfin has been appointed as Executive Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The selection procedure lasted one and a half years. 100 applicants competed for the position of Director of Eurofound.

“The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions is among the organizations managed by the governments and the social partners. Each member state has three representatives- members of the government, trade unions and employers’ organizations. The Bulgarian Industrial Association and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria represent this country at Eurofound. I was supported by the government, CITUB and BIA. This appointment has nothing to do with the political relations in the country. The support I received was purely individual”, Ivailo Kalfin specified in an interview for Horizont channel of the Bulgarian National Radio.

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions is the oldest European Union agency. It was founded in 1975. The agency employs nearly 100 researchers. Eurofound is currently analyzing digitization, the climate changes, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and their impact on employment, the workers’ skills and the work-life balance, explained Ivailo Kalfin. “Eurofound gathers valuable experience from different countries which is available to the member states. In other words, the knowledge accumulated at the agency is extremely useful”, added Ivailo Kalfin.

Ivailo Kalfin was a Minister of Labor and Social Policy of Bulgaria. Between 2009 and 2014, he was a Member of the European Parliament. Earlier, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria.