The EU Commission recast its economic policy guidance Wednesday towards recovery which achieves sustainable and inclusive growth while mitigating the socio-economic consequences of COVID-19.
Its European Semester Spring Package recommends country-specific recommendations (CSRs) focuses on the most urgent challenges brought about by the pandemic, and moves in the medium-term to facilitating its plans for ‘green transition’ and ‘digital transformation’.
The Commission recommendations are structured around two objectives: in the short-term, mitigating the coronavirus pandemic’s severe negative socio-economic consequences; and in the short to medium-term, achieving sustainable and inclusive growth which facilitates the green transition and the digital transformation. The Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy outlined the Commission’s growth strategy, based on promoting competitive sustainability to build an economy that works for people and the planet. With the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis this remains of utmost importance.
The recommendations cover areas such as investing in public health and resilience of the health sector, preserving employment through income support for affected workers, investing in people and skills, supporting the corporate sector (in particular small and medium-sized enterprises) and taking action against aggressive tax planning and money laundering. Recovery and investment must go hand-in-hand, reshaping the EU economy faced with the digital and green transitions.
The Commission has also adopted reports under Article 126(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU for all Member States except Romania, which is already in the corrective arm of the Pact. The Commission is required to prepare these reports for Member States that are themselves planning – for reasons related to the coronavirus – or are forecast by the Commission, to breach the 3% deficit limit in 2020. The reports for France, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain also assess these Member States’ compliance with the debt criterion in 2019, based on confirmed data validated by Eurostat. These reports take into account the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on national public finances.
Source: EU Business
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