The Europe 2020 Strategy has defined among others, one key priority that is to raise "Europe’s employment rate – more and better jobs, especially for women, young people and older workers" so to achieve a benchmarkl of " 75% employment rate for women and men aged 20-64 by 2020– achieved by getting more people into work.
The achievement of this important goal, that has important implication for the more general objectives of at least 4 of the five headline targets that have been set for the EU to achieve by the end of 2020 as employment; research and development; education; social inclusion and poverty reduction, is threatened by the economic crisis and the consequent loss of job opportunities that in many countries lead the unemployment rates to achieve "record" percentages.