In April this year, the EU carried out a major reform of its economic governance framework to make it simpler, more transparent and with greater national ownership. The European Commission has now presented the first European Semester Autumn Package under this new framework. It delivers on the promise of the reformed framework to safeguard the ownership of EU countries over fiscal policy, strengthen debt sustainability, promote growth through reforms and investments, and streamline the rules.
The cornerstone of the new economic governance framework are EU countries’ medium-term plans that integrate their fiscal, reform and investment objectives. As part of the Autumn package, the Commission concluded that 20 of the 22 submitted medium-term plans meet the requirements of the new framework and set out a credible fiscal path to ensure that the respective countries’ debt level is put on a downward path. It also assessed the draft budgetary plans for 2025 of 17 euro area EU countries to establish if they were ready to implement their medium-term plans.
The Commission also issued recommendations for multi-year net expenditure paths to correct the excessive deficit for the eight EU countries (Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) that are currently subject to the so-called Excessive Deficit Procedure under the Stability and Growth Pact. The package also includes post-programme surveillance reports that assess the economic, fiscal and financial situation of EU countries that have benefited from financial assistance programmes and their capacity to repay debt.
The Commission will present the second part of the European Semester Autumn Package, including the annual sustainable growth strategy, the euro area recommendation and the Alert Mechanism report, in the coming weeks.
For more information
Questions and answers on the 2024 European Semester Autumn Fiscal Package
