Prague - European Union leaders, employers and trade unions met in Prague on Thursday in a bid to save millions of European jobs threatened by the world economic crisis.

"Nobody doubts that the situation on the EU labour market is very serious ... We are meeting so that we could support measures which will provide new jobs and respond to the fears of EU citizens," said Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who chaired the meeting on his last full day as his country's leader.

According to forecasts from the EU's executive, the European Commission, some 8.5 million Europeans are set to lose their jobs in the next two years as a result of the economic crisis.

That is the "single most damaging impact" of the crisis, and the Prague meeting, hosted by the Czech government as current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, is "an important message of European concern and, I hope, of European action," said commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

As the summit opened, the European Trade Union Confederation released a statement calling on the EU to launch "stronger and coordinated European action to tackle the crisis and its impact on unemployment and workers."

In particular, the ETUC statement called on the EU to commit one per cent of its economic output to job creation, research and innovation, and to guarantee stronger and longer workers' rights, better pay and a "major increase" in government welfare spending.

ETUC President Wanja Lundby-Wedin lamented the fact that the meeting, originally planned as a summit of all 27 EU national leaders, had been scaled down to a meeting with the commission and the bloc's rotating presidency, currently held by the Czechs.

"It is a pity it was not the major social summit we would have preferred," she said.

As well as the commission and Czech government, the EU was represented by top politicians from Sweden and Spain, the next two countries to take over the rotating six-month presidency. (dpa)