Book excerpt: Published every year, the report analyses the state of working Europe explaining with the aid of statistics and graphs the main trends in terms of Europe’s macro-economic situation, its labour market development, the situation of wages and collective bargaining, and worker participation. The focus of this year’s Benchmarking report is on the lessons learned – or not learned – from eight years of economic crisis and austerity policy. The findings point to policy failures and to the need to redefine alternatives in order to get Europe back on a sustainable growth path. The deterioration of the labour market and social situation in the EU, along with the appointment of a new Commission last autumn, have led to some renewed policy initiatives that seek to restore growth as a means of addressing the situation. The most notable of these initiatives is the Annual Growth Survey with its three pillars: the Investment Plan, fiscal responsibility and structural reforms.