On 20 November 1997, as the Extraordinary European Council Meeting on Employment is due to begin in Luxembourg, the Belgian daily newspaper La Libre Belgique is sceptical as to whether a European summit against unemployment will be able to achieve results.

Le 20 novembre 1997, lors de l'ouverture du Conseil européen extraordinaire sur l'emploi à Luxembourg, José María Gil-Robles, président du Parlement européen, prononce un discours sur les enjeux de politique communautaire sur l'emploi.

Le 21 novembre 1997, lors du Conseil extraordinaire sur l'emploi au Luxembourg, le président français Jacques Chirac détaille les lignes directrices pour lutter contre le chômage en Europe et lance un appel au dialogue social.

Durch die Reform von Amsterdam wird dem EG-Vertrag ein neuer Artikel 128 zur Beschäftigung hinzugefügt, der dem Europäischen Rat eine neue Aufgabe in diesem Bereich verleiht: die Annahme von Schlussfolgerungen zur Beschäftigungslage anhand eines gemeinsamen Jahresberichts des Rates und der Kommission. Auf seiner Sondertagung über Beschäftigungsfragen in Luxemburg beschließt der Europäische Rat, die Bestimmungen aus Artikel 128 bereits ab 1998, d. h. schon vor Inkrafttreten des Vertrages von Amsterdam, anzuwenden.

On 21 November 1997, the French President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister Lionel Jospin reply to questions from journalists on the outcome of the Luxembourg European Council on Employment.

Group photo of the European Council held on 20 and 21 November 1997 in the Luxembourg-Kirchberg Conference Centre.

On 20 and 21 November 1997, the Extraordinary European Council Meeting on Employment is held in Luxembourg City under the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union. During the Council, several European trade unions and unemployment organisations take to the streets of Luxembourg City to protest against job insecurity, exclusion and unemployment and call for the establishment of a more social Europe.

On 20 and 21 November 1997, during the Extraordinary European Council Meeting on Employment held in Luxembourg, several European trade unions and organisations take to the streets of Luxembourg City to protest against unemployment and job insecurity in Europe. Nearly 40 000 demonstrators march to defend employment and a social Europe.

‘First tangible results in Luxembourg (Employment Summit: “Which of the gentlemen ordered the coffee?”)’ On 21 November 1997, the German cartoonist, Horst Haitzinger, takes an ironic look at the measures to tackle unemployment adopted by the Fifteen following the Luxembourg Extraordinary Council.

En novembre 1997, le mensuel français Le Monde diplomatique analyse les enjeux du Conseil européen extraordinaire de Luxembourg sur l'emploi des 20 et 21 novembre.

On 23 November 1997, the French daily newspaper Le Monde comments on the decisions adopted in Luxembourg by the Fifteen following the extraordinary European Council on employment that took place on 20 and 21 November seeking to put in place a European employment policy.