On 17 March, the Environment Ministers of the EU Member States will exchange views on the greening of the European Semester, the budgetary exercise in economic policy coordination that began with the European Commission’s ‘Annual Sustainable Growth Survey 2022’.
The EU27 ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) are expected to agree on Friday 11 March on the questions that will guide the debate, according to a framework note prepared by the French Presidency of the EU Council for the Environment Council meeting (see EUROPE 12897/15).
This 7 March note, seen by EUROPE, recalls that the implementation of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals is integrated into the ‘European Semester’ and that the ‘European Green Deal’ advocates the adoption of an economic model based on four pillars: environmental sustainability, productivity, equity, and macroeconomic stability to achieve the EU’s environmental and climate objectives.
The French Presidency also recalls that, in its annual growth review, the Commission stresses that a stable economy that allows policies to be oriented towards the long term and a fair transition for those most affected by the transformations are the preconditions for achieving these ambitions.
Against this backdrop, Ministers will be asked to answer the following two questions:
1. How can the ‘European Semester’ better integrate the challenges of a green transition that ensures the achievement of the EU’s climate change and adaptation objectives, the preservation of biodiversity, and that is inclusive and fair?
2. What are the principles and best practices for taking account of just transition issues in economic policies - particularly with regard to the analysis of the distribution of effects (geographical and social distribution of impacts on purchasing power, employment, accessibility, etc.) - that should be strengthened and discussed in the framework of the ‘European Semester’?
See the framework note (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/nl (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)