The Communication will be an input for the European Council in June and aims to propose a shared commitment for employment around three priorities: maintaining employment and promoting mobility; upgrading skills and matching labour market needs; increasing access to employment.

The Commission will adopt on June 3rd 2009 a Communication on employment, which follows from the Employment Summit held in Prague on May 7th and its preparatory seminars. The Employment Summit and these stakeholder events were organised with the aim to develop joint strategies and coordinated actions to better face the impact of the financial and economic crisis on EU labour markets.

Commission will also propose in its Communication some principles and further actions that the EU, its Member States and the social partners should implement to speed up recovery and limit the impact of the crisis on people and their jobs.

After a few years of relatively high growth and job creation (8 million new jobs alone in 2006-2008), the global financial crisis and its repercussions on the real economy are hitting labour markets hard and are increasingly affecting the prospects and livelihoods of European citizens.

Europe is expected to lose some 3.5 million jobs this year, and unemployment could reach 10% next year. Strong measures are called for to tackle rising unemployment, by keeping people in jobs and helping create new jobs.

Although many of the levers are at national level, there is an important and complementary role for the EU to play setting out the broader framework. The European Union has reinforced efforts to promote employment and social inclusion, as part of its strategy to deal with the economic and financial crisis. These actions include the implementation of the European Economic Recovery Plan, allowing for an exchange of ideas and pooling best practice as well as making full use of resources available to the EU. This includes making full use of available funds, including the European Social Funds and European Globalisation Fund which have recently both been revised to make them easier to use and more effective in times of crisis, and looking into new options for funding.