Broad guidelines of the economic policies of the Member States and the Community for 2002

Following a presentation by the Commission, the Council held an exchange of views on the Commission Recommendation on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines for 2002. The Council in particular focussed on general policy recommendations and priority areas to be examined by the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) and the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) in their further work on the guidelines. The Council broadly supported the emphasis placed by the Commission on the four key challenges for the next year: - safeguarding and further strengthening the macroeconomic framework; - promoting more and better jobs, raising labour force participation and addressing persistent unemployment; - strengthening conditions for high productivity growth; - promoting sustainable development in the interest of current and future generations. The ECOFIN Council on 4 June 2002 will adopt the report on the draft BEPGs which will be submitted to the Seville European Council.�