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In March 2007, the EU KLEMS Growth and Productivity Accounts were publicly released. These accounts include measures of output growth, employment and skill creation, capital formation and multifactor productivity (MFP) at the industry level for European Union member states from 1970 onwards. This overview paper first discusses the key characteristics of the database and the variables, country and industry coverage, then reviews the growth accounting methodology, including the measurement of labour and capital services, and finally provides a brief analysis of major trends. The first release of the EU KLEMS database confirms the view that European countries showed a significant slowdown in productivity growth since 1995, which is shown to be widespread across countries and industries, but with notable differences.