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Meeting today at the headquarters of the Party of European Socialists in Brussels, the Employment and Social Affairs Ministers of nine EU Member States called for co-ordinated EU action to provide sustainable jobs across the continent.

In a joint declaration released after the meeting, the ministers explain that the European discussion of an exit strategy comes 'too early', and call instead for an ‘entry strategy into the labour market’. Such a strategy would include active labour market policies, concerted efforts at creating jobs in new growth sectors, and reforming the EU's Lisbon Strategy into a long-term recovery and development programme.

Commenting on the meeting, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said: “Next year we will have more than 27 million people without a job in Europe. If we would chose to exit recovery programmes now, the unemployment and social crises would become even worse. We as European social democrats and socialists therefore ask for an entry strategy into the labour market.“

Portuguese Employment and Social Affairs Minister Maria Helena André, Chairperson of the PES Social Ministers Network, said: “The fight against unemployment must be our top priority. To maintain people in work, to create new and decent jobs in order to allow for an inclusive labour market is our endeavour.”