Commission President Jacques Santer this week presented a progress report on his ‘confidence pact’ for employment

Date: 24/10/1996

Stressing that more still needed to be done to win support for the initiative, Santer claimed there were “fragile but promising signs of movement”. He praised governments for following recommendations to cut spending rather than raise taxes, and claimed progress had been made on reforming members states' labour markets. He criticised the lack of progress on the Trans-European Networks and the European Company Statute, and promised more concerted action to target structural fund money towards job creation.