Brussels, 24/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 26 February, the European Commission will publish its report on the macroeconomic imbalances observed in 18 member states, with any decisions to launch infringement proceedings on the subject anticipated for the coming weeks.
Today, we held an “orientation debate” at the college of commissioners on the socio-economic challenges in Europe, said the Commissioner in charge of the Euro, Valdis Dombrovskis. He said that decisions on the macroeconomic imbalances observed in 18 member states would be taken “in the next few weeks” on the basis of the assessment reports to be published on Friday. It is vital that the member states remedy the weaknesses weighing down their competitiveness, such as a “high level of public and private debt”, he added.
In its report on the early warning mechanism on macroeconomic imbalances, which was presented at the end of November, the Commission included Austria and Estonia in the group of countries under surveillance (see EUROPE 11439). It reports that the imbalances observed in Bulgaria, France, Croatia, Italy and Portugal will require decisive actions and specific monitoring, whilst those noted in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom will require differentiated action.
European Semester. On Thursday, the European Parliament is to adopt its position on the budgetary process of the 'European Semester', in the framework of which macroeconomic imbalances will be analysed.
This position is based on three reports. The first of these, which was steered by Maria João Rodrigues (S&D, Portugal), looks at the annual growth review 2016 and stresses the importance of investment to support economic growth, calling on countries with current account surpluses to stimulate internal consumption (see EUROPE 11494). The second report, the work on which was led by Sofia Ribeiro (EPP, Portugal), focuses on employment and social aspects in the framework of the annual growth review and supports the idea that the European Commission include employment-related indicators when assessing macroeconomic imbalances, a notion opposed by the Council (see EUROPE 11469). The third report, under the responsibility of Catherine Stihler (S&D, UK), deals with the governance of the single market and calls for the 'European Semester' to include a regular monitoring of progress made in deepening the single market and the obstacles to integration. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)