Press Release: Commission recommends concrete action to promote growth and employment in the enlarged Union

The first update of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPGs), adopted by the European Commission on 7 April 2004, reaffirms the economic policy strategy adopted by the European Council in June 2003 and confirms that this strategy is also appropriate for the acceding countries. The Commission will also adopt in parallel recommendations on employment, drawing on policy lines agreed at the European Council in March 2004, and the findings of the European Employment Task Force, chaired by Wim Kok, while maintaining the same framework of European Employment Strategy and Guidelines as revised in 2003. While the challenges facing the new Member States are similar to those of the EU-15, the scale of these challenges is, in some cases, much greater. Overall unemployment and the budget deficit are both around double that of the EU-15, while income per capita is less than half that in the EU-15. However, the situation varies considerably between the new Member States. Taking due account of their different performances, country-specific recommendations are presented for each of them.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/broadeconomypolicyguidelines2004_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/broadeconomypolicyguidelines2004_en.htm

---