Skip to content
DRAFT REPORT (2023/2063(INI))

On the European Semester for economic policy coordination 2024

ECON-PR-757014

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs · Rapporteur: René Repasi

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull text
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 17 Oct 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

A draft report on the 2024 European Semester sets out Parliament's concerns on weak EU growth, inflation and investment, and its views on the Semester, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and reform of EU fiscal rules. It calls for country-specific recommendations (CSRs) focused on a limited set of challenges, linked to country reports and covering competitiveness, the green and digital transitions and social fairness. It asks for more flexibility in the RRF's milestones and targets, and for cohesion policy to be streamlined with RRF investment needs and CSRs. On the fiscal rules reform, it wants simplification, country-specific paths, room for investment, and stronger accountability of the Commission to Parliament and a role for national parliaments.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes that Parliament express concern about weak growth and inflation, call for focused CSRs and a more flexible RRF, and back a simplified, country-specific fiscal rules reform with room for investment and stronger accountability to Parliament and national parliaments.

Key points

  1. Expresses concern about weak EU growth and the impact of energy prices and inflation on households' purchasing power and on EU companies.
  2. Recognises the European Central Bank's (ECB) efforts to lower inflation but considers interest rate rises only partially address its causes; calls for coordinated fiscal, structural and regulatory policies.
  3. Stresses that a lack of public and private investment in certain member states hinders sustainable growth and the EU's resilience and competitiveness.
  4. Recalls that the European Semester coordinates budgetary, economic, social and employment policies across the Union, including the European Pillar of Social Rights.
  5. Is concerned about the declining social dimension of the Semester and the falling number of social CSRs based on the Social Scoreboard; calls on the Commission to link CSRs more closely to country reports.
  6. Says the 2024 CSRs should focus on a limited set of challenges and serve competitiveness, the green and digital transitions and social fairness, taking account of social vulnerabilities.
  7. Is concerned that the RRF's performance-based financing delivers too little in results and creates too much bureaucracy; calls for more flexibility to adjust milestones and targets.
  8. Supports streamlining cohesion policy programmes with RRF investment needs and CSRs, while recalling that cohesion policy serves broader objectives; calls for comparable stakeholder participation in national recovery and resilience plans.
  9. Considers reform of the EU fiscal rules necessary and welcomes the Commission's proposals; says the reform must simplify the framework, be more country-specific, strengthen enforceability and enable public investment for the green and digital transitions.
  10. Regrets that the economic governance reform lacks the incentive mechanisms of the RRF and is concerned that some member states cannot finance the just green and digital transition alone; deplores that the link between macroeconomic imbalances and fiscal rules is not sufficiently addressed.
  11. Calls for common rules based on objective criteria to avoid enduring excessive deficits, allowing temporary deviations for dedicated, justifiable and strategically significant investments realising EU objectives, and different debt reduction paths for member states.
  12. Welcomes the Commission's negotiation of individual fiscal-structural plans with member states but says this discretion must come with increased accountability to Parliament; considers stronger involvement of national parliaments meaningful and calls for accountability instruments such as veto rights or holding Commissioners personally responsible.

Who is affected

  • Member states: subject to country-specific recommendations and fiscal-structural plans, with different debt reduction paths allowed.
  • The Commission: asked to link CSRs to country reports and to face stronger accountability towards Parliament.
  • National parliaments: proposed to be more involved in determining and voting on fiscal-structural plans.
  • Households and EU companies: affected by energy prices and inflation on purchasing power and performance.

Figures and deadlines

  • GDP growth of 0.6 % in 2023 in both the EU and the euro area, rising to 1.3 % and 1.2 % in 2024.
  • Inflation of 6.5 % in the EU and 5.6 % in the euro area in 2023, expected to fall to 3.5 % and 3.2 % in 2024.
  • Debt-to-GDP ratio expected to decrease to 83.1 % in the EU and 90.4 % in the euro area, then to around 82.7 % in 2024 and 82.5 % in 2025 in the EU.

Legal basis: Articles 121(2) and 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)