Commission to present 2014 Country-Specific Recommendations

On 2 June, the European Commission will recommend budgetary, employment and other structural reforms that each member state should carry out over the next 12-18 months to help them boost growth.

The annual country-specific recommendations form part of the European Semester, the EU's calendar for economic policy coordination, which is designed to prevent future crises by catching and remedying problems before they spread. The recommendations also encourage member states to meet their long-term targets on employment, education, research, climate change and poverty reduction under the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Together with the country-specific recommendations, the European Commission will also table several recommendations under the Stability and Growth Pact, the EU's budgetary surveillance mechanism.

Background

The country-specific recommendations are the culmination of months of careful analysis by the Commission and debate with the other EU institutions. The cycle begins each November with the Annual Growth Survey, which proposes economic priorities for the EU as a whole. EU leaders endorsed these priorities in March 2014 and member states integrated them in their medium-term budgetary and structural reform plans, which they submitted to the Commission in April.

The Commission's recommendations are based on a detailed assessment of these plans, and of the economic, employment and budgetary situation in each country. The recommendations will be discussed and endorsed by EU leaders in June and formally adopted by finance ministers in July. Member States are expected to take account of them in their 2015 budget and reform plans.

The Commission will also take a number of steps under the Stability and Growth Pact. The Pact, which has a preventive arm and a corrective arm (the Excessive Deficit Procedure), commits Member States to reduce deficits and debt in a timely and lasting way, through recommendations and deadlines proposed by the Commission. The Commission's proposals will be discussed and agreed by EU finance ministers in June.

A press conference will take place following the Commission's meeting on 2 June to present:

1. 27 sets of country-specific recommendations, one for every member state (except Greece and Cyprus, which are implementing economic adjustment programmes) and one for the eurozone;

2. 29 staff working documents, analysing the economic situation, outlook, reforms and challenges in every member state, including Greece and Cyprus;

3. a communication summarizing the key political messages emerging from these recommendations, and;

4. a number of recommendations under the Stability and Growth Pact.

Member states' budgetary and reform plans, submitted April 2014

Overview of ongoing excessive deficit procedures

Share this article: