{"id":152393,"date":"2024-06-20T03:00:26","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T01:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cde.ual.es\/?p=152393"},"modified":"2024-06-19T13:52:43","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T11:52:43","slug":"european-semester-spring-package-provides-policy-guidance-to-enhance-the-eus-competitiveness-and-resilience-and-maintain-sound-public-finances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cde.ual.es\/en\/european-semester-spring-package-provides-policy-guidance-to-enhance-the-eus-competitiveness-and-resilience-and-maintain-sound-public-finances\/","title":{"rendered":"European Semester Spring Package provides policy guidance to enhance the EU’s competitiveness and resilience, and maintain sound public finances"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Commission is providing policy guidance to Member States under the\u00a02024 European Semester Spring<\/a>\u00a0Package to build a robust and future-proof economy that secures competitiveness, resilience and long-term prosperity for all, while maintaining sound public finances, in the face of a challenging geopolitical environment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The EU is determined to take further steps to enhance its long-term\u00a0competitiveness<\/strong>, prosperity and leadership on the global stage and to strengthen its open strategic autonomy. While the EU and its Member States have strong assets to build on, the EU will continue to address structural challenges that hamper its competitiveness, ensuring higher productivity growth and stronger investment and addressing labour and skills shortages.<\/p>\n

This requires an\u00a0integrated approach<\/strong>\u00a0across all policy areas<\/strong>: macroeconomic stability, promoting environmental sustainability, productivity and fairness. The European Semester provides this policy coordination, including the implementation of NextGenerationEU, with the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) at its core, and Cohesion Policy programmes. The European Semester cycle also provides updated reporting on progress towards the\u00a0delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals<\/strong>\u00a0and identifies investment priorities for the upcoming mid-term review of Cohesion Policy.<\/p>\n

Resilience in the face of challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0European Semester<\/strong>\u00a0has played a\u00a0crucial role<\/strong>\u00a0in supporting\u00a0strong and coordinated economic policy responses\u00a0<\/strong>over the past five years, as the EU was confronted by a series of extraordinary challenges. The EU has demonstrated a high degree of economic and social resilience in the face of major shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the related energy price surges and inflation hikes. Looking ahead, the\u00a0Spring 2024 Economic Forecast<\/a>\u00a0projects GDP growth in 2024 at 1.0% in the EU and 0.8% in the euro area, on the back of a strong labour market and dynamic private consumption. In 2025, growth is forecast to accelerate further to 1.6% in the EU and to 1.4% in the euro area. Meanwhile, inflation is expected to fall from 6.4% in 2023 to 2.2% in 2025.<\/p>\n

Targeted recommendations to Member States<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a02024 country reports<\/a>\u00a0analyse economic, employment and social developments in each Member State and take stock of the implementation of recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) and Cohesion Policy programmes. The reports also identify key challenges, with a particular focus on competitiveness, and priority reforms and investments. Based on this analysis, the Commission proposes\u00a0country-specific recommendations (CSRs)<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to provide guidance to Member States on how to tackle those key challenges that are only partially or not addressed in Member States’ RRPs.<\/p>\n

The country-specific recommendations are divided into:<\/p>\n