
The European Employment Observatory (EEO) contributes to the development of the European Employment Strategy through the provision of information, comparative research and evaluation on employment policies and labour market trends in the countries covered by the EEO. The EEO improves the information base for policy makers of the European Employment Strategy and other stakeholders.
The European Employment Observatory covers the EU 27 Member States as well as the EEA-EFTA states Norway and Iceland (in the context of the EEA agreement) and Croatia, Turkey, FYROM, Serbia and Iceland.
In order to ensure that the information provided is as up-to-date as possible, increasing use is being made of electronic means for the distribution of information.
The European Employment Observatory (EEO) consists of the core team (GHK/CERGE-EI) and the SYSDEM network. There are also 20 thematic experts who are available to the EEO to undertake ad hoc research on pan-European themes. The thematic experts have extensive international level research experience in the field of employment and the labour markets and are recognised leaders in their specific fields.
The Core Team's task is to achieve the best possible integration and higher visibility of the work of the Observatory. This is done through the provision of high quality and up to date information and research and the provision of ad hoc services to the European Commission (DG Employment, Equal Opportunities and Social Affairs). The core team coordinates the activities of the SYSDEM network and the thematic experts, liaises with the Commission, and processes expert contributions into regular reports for the Commission, as well as written publications and a public website. The Core Team also produces a bi-monthly EEO newsletter.
The European Commission and the EU Member States decided in 1982 to set up MISEP (Mutual Information System on Employment Policies in Europe). SYSDEM (Community System of Documentation on Employment) was established in 1989. At the end of 1989, the European Council called upon the Commission and the Member States to set up a European Employment Observatory. In 1996, the networks were brought under the common management of a single secretariat. The MISEP network ran until October 2009; all of the reports of its meetings are available on the website, together with the reports of the activites of the SYSDEM network, which continues to play a full role as part of the EEO.
You can get in touch with the EEO Core Team here.