Bulgaria and France signed Friday an agreement to cooperate in the social policy field including regulations for the exchange of workers and the rules for creating labor contracts, and the social security of immigrants.

The agreement was signed by the Bulgarian Labor Minister Emiliya Maslarova and the French Social Affairs Minister Xavier Bertrand after the closing of the European Social Policy Week, which took place in Sofia between May 26 and May 30.

Bertrand promised before the forum that the social dimension would be the most important one during the French Presidency of the EU in July-December, 2008.

The French Minister emphasized the new social plan of the EU and the instruments for temporary employment, combating poverty, and equal access to economic and social achievements for each member country.

Bulgaria's Parliament Speaker Georgi Pirinski also addressed the forum at its closing by promising that the aims and models discussed during the Social Policy Week would become of the work of the Parliament as early as next week.

The neutral and efficient absorption of the European Social Fund, the development of the new model for social protection, and the security on the labor market were Pirinski's main points in his speech.

The Bulgarian Minister of European Affairs Gergana Grancharova also spoke in the last day of the forum by praising Bulgaria's openness to combating discrimination, measures to encourage child bearing, and human rights protection.

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