On Wednesday 26 March, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) concluded that the labour market reforms set out in the national recovery and resilience plans have produced “some results” but have “not [been] sufficient to address structural challenges”.
“Many of the recommendations are not taken into account in the reforms carried out by European countries to stimulate recovery”, adds the Court.
The ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ (RRF) came into force in February 2021, with €650 billion to help Member States implement reforms and investments, including “fostering high-quality employment creation” and “contributing to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights” among the general objectives, in conjunction with the ‘European Semester’ budgetary process.
“The labour market reforms addressed 40% of the sub-country-specific recommendations fully or largely and another 26% marginally. The remaining 34% were not addressed by the labour market RRF reforms”, summarises the ECA. “None of the Member States have fully addressed the labour market recommendations in their RFF reforms, four (Denmark, Ireland, Hungary and Slovakia) have not included any reforms responding to the recommendations in their plans, while four others have taken these recommendations into account to a large extent” (Greece, Spain, Croatia and Finland).
For half of the reforms (e.g. lifelong learning, support for jobseekers or improved unemployment benefit), the Member States have not been able to demonstrate results.
In particular, the Court examined: - whether the planned reforms had been designed to help meet the challenges identified in the ‘European Semester’. All Member States were studied in this regard; - whether these reforms had been implemented as planned, in terms of timing, scope and achievements, or their impact on the Commission’s assessment. Four countries have been singled out here: Belgium, Greece, Spain and Portugal.
On the first point, the ECA cites the reform of unemployment insurance in France as an example of a reform likely to respond to structural challenges, unlike the “2021 social guarantee” introduced in Germany, which is only temporary.
For the four countries studied more specifically, 30 reforms were due to be completed by the end of 2023: “15 of these 30 reforms were completed by the time indicated in the CID [Council Implementing Decision]. Another 10 reforms were implemented later than initially planned, although most were delayed by no more than six months. The remaining five reforms were not completed by June 2024”.
As for reforms whose scope has been reduced or considerably modified, ECA cites Belgium and the ‘Training Account’, which was supposed to provide training for 25,000 unemployed people. The Court explains that, according to the Commission, the target had been set when “the COVID-19 pandemic was expected to have a significant negative impact on employment. As this was not the case, the target could no longer be reached in absolute numbers”.
To find out more, go to https://aeur.eu/f/g4n (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)