Brussels, 15/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - As part of the European Semester process for 2016, European finance ministers adopted a special recommendation for the eurozone on Friday 15 January and a conclusions document on the Annual Growth Review and macroeconomic imbalances.
A European source says that the only notable difference from earlier versions of these documents (see EUROPE 11467) is that the Ecofin Council has unanimously kept its concern about the European Commission's insertion of three additional employment indicators in the scoreboard, although recognising the importance of dealing with social challenges and jobs. The source said this type of Commission initiative would not protect the effectiveness of the scoreboard as an early warning instrument or the nature of the 'MIP' procedure for identifying, preventing and correcting macroeconomic imbalances. The source said social and jobs-related indicators are not relevant when it comes to identifying macroeconomic risks and changes in the indicators could not lead to new stages in the MIP procedure.
As expected, the Council's conclusions document on the Annual Growth Review underscores economic policy priorities set by the European Commission at the end of November 2015, viz. resumption of investment, pursuit of structural reforms and 'responsible' budget policies. In its Autumn 2015 Economic Forecasts, the Commission predicted economic growth of 1.8% of GDP in the eurozone in 2016 (1.6% in 2015) and 2.0% in the EU28 (1.9% in 2015). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)