EU Joint Employment Report (JER) heading for spring summit

Ahead of the EU's economic and social summit, the European Council 24 and 25 March 2011, we return to the EPSCO Council, where ministers for employment and social affairs adopted the following general conclusions:

3073rd Council meeting Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs: Employment and Social Policy; Brussels, 7 March 2011 (Council document 7360/11; 20 pages)


EPSCO on employment

On page 9 of the general conclusions the EPSCO Council put the Joint Employment Report (JER) into perspective, joint meaning Commission and Council:

The Council adopted the joint employment report (7396/11) along with the conclusions on it. The JER reviews the current employment situation in Europe and the implementation of the employment guidelines adopted in October 2010. This year, it is more forward-looking than in earlier years, additionally taking into account the early state of implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The page summarises the main findings of the JER and the principal EPSCO greetings to the spring European Council.


Joint Employment Report (JER)

The Joint Employment Report is part of the first European Semester. It adds flesh to the bones of the Annual Growth Survey (AGS), during the run-up to the spring European Council.

The latest JER version (document 7396/11; dated 8 March 2001, as adopted by the EPSCO Council, is more detailed than the general conclusions (26 pages). (A short while ago, five language versions had appeared on the Council website.)

The pages 2 to 5 of the Joint Employment Report are dedicated to the main messages. Despite the economic jargon and the abundance of good causes, concrete measures in the EU member states can make a difference for firms and jobseekers.

One of the purposes of the JER is to provide guidance for the final versions of the National Reform Programmes (NPR), due in April 2011, which aim to put the Europe 2020 Strategy (EU2020) into practice in the EU member states.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. On the Bloggingportal.eu Blog, you can follow and participate in the second day of live blogging from the EU Competitiveness Council and tweeting under #Eupilot by @europasionaria and @ronpatz in the Justus Lipsius Building in Brussels.