Brussels, 18/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 18 March, the General Affairs Council adopted the assessment of the European Semester budget process drawn up by a dozen ministerial Council groupings.
A report by the Greek Presidency of the Council of the EU notes that the European Semester is beginning to show results, although there are still some gaps. The report notes considerable progress in terms of budget consolidation, although this has not always favoured growth, and recommends shifting the burden of taxation from labour to indirect taxation (like property ownership and environment taxes); helping small businesses access finance; liberalising the services sector and regulated professions; and greater competition in network industries. The report states that delays are getting worse on the innovation front, and insufficient efforts in the energy domain (uneven transposition of EU rules, persistent lack of infrastructure) are still of grave concern. At the end of the week, the European summit will ask the member states to take account of the analysis when drawing up their stability and reform programmes for 2014 and to boost their efforts to achieve the EUROPE 2020 strategy's targets, according to a draft conclusions document seen by this newsletter (see related article). (MB)