The Council has adopted Conclusions on employment and social policies and it stresses that:

  • In the context of transition towards economic and jobs recovery, the continuation of the policy priorities set out in the Commission's fourth Annual Growth Survey (AGS) is welcome as it ensures stability of the overall policy framework.
  • The Joint Employment Report (JER) contains for the first time a Scoreboard of key employment and social indicators. It can help to underpin the contribution of the Council to the agenda set by the European Council regarding the reinforcement of the social dimension of the EMU within the current institutional framework, and can represent a valuable additional tool within Article 148 and the European Semester. Work should now continue to improve the scoreboard and refine its operational scope in time for the 2015 European Semester.
  • The Council confirms the broad political objectives for social policies as adopted in its 2013 conclusions on "The Annual Growth Survey and the Joint Employment Report in the context of the European Semester: political guidance on employment and social policies.

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