On Tuesday 18 February, European finance ministers will approve the economic and budgetary policy recommendation for the euro area as a whole, which recommends a “slightly contractionary” fiscal stance for 2025 of 0.25% of euro area GDP, compared with 0.5% of GDP in 2024 (see EUROPE 13542/4).
“The proper implementation of the new fiscal framework would imply a slightly contractionary euro area fiscal stance also in 2026. After the strong expansions of the past years, this is appropriate in the euro area, although there are large differences among the Member States, particularly when taking into account their individual budgetary positions”, say the EU Council’s experts in the provisional version of the text submitted to Member States’ ambassadors to the EU on Wednesday 12 February.
The recommendation also stresses the importance of improving productivity “as a matter of urgency”, rapidly setting up a Savings and Investments Union in parallel with the Capital Markets Union project, and improving access to the labour market, notably through investment in worker training.
See the draft recommendation: https://aeur.eu/f/fgg (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)