For the first time since the European elections in May 2019, on Thursday 11 March, the European Parliament approved a position on economic policy coordination within the budgetary process of the ‘European Semester’.
The agreed text is based on the ‘Győri’ draft report that was adopted last week (see EUROPE 12671/5), plus all of the compromise amendments of the EPP and S&D groups, which were adopted on Wednesday (see EUROPE 12674/7).
One of these amendments completes the part of the report which states that the general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact, activated in March 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, should remain active as long as the underlying criteria justifying its activation are met. It notes that, according to the European Commission’s current analysis, this escape clause should apply in 2022 and be deactivated in 2023 (see EUROPE 12670/1).
On Wednesday, during the plenary debate, Mr Ferber spoke of “intensive“ negotiations over the last few days, which had led to a compromise proposal. He called the ‘European Semester’ a central element for the coordination of socio-economic policies and its close link with the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the instrument at the heart of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan.
The German Christian Democrat had strongly criticised supporters, such as The Left group, of writing off the public debt to be incurred in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, which is currently held by the ECB. “ The last country to do that was Argentina, and I don’t think the Argentines are any better off”, he said.
The specific amendment by the radical Left was rejected by a large margin (91 votes in favour, 561 against, 40 abstentions). The Greens/EFA group remained divided on this issue, with the French in favour and the Germans and Nordics opposed to it.
Recovery Summit on 21 June in Portugal. On behalf of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias, confirmed that a European conference on economic recovery would be held on Monday 21 June. The conference will discuss the economic situation and what the post-Covid-19 economy will look like, she said.
On Thursday, the European Parliament also endorsed the report by Lina Gálvez Muñoz (S&D, Spain) on the social dimension of the ‘European Semester’, adopting it by a large majority (508 votes in favour, 121 against and 64 abstentions).
During the debate, she called for an assessment of “the social consequences” of economic policies. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, “17%” of young people are unemployed, she said.
See the ‘Ferber’ report: https://bit.ly/3clwIqN
See the ‘Gálvez Muñoz’ report: https://bit.ly/3ew7Lvw (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)