A decalogue for recovery

The president of the Commission José Manuel Barroso, announced – maybe with too much emphasis – “a new phase of European integration”. More concretely, the Executive presents the yearly priorities for EU growth, proposing at the same time a “decalogue” for recovery, namely, ten urgent actions “focused on macroeconomic stability and fiscal consolidation, structural reforms and growth-enhancing measures”.The “European semester”. A new approach based on shared economic governance aimed at facing the ongoing crisis inaugurated the first “European Semester” of the Community.” “We are setting out to break new ground and to decisively improve the way in which we manage and coordinate our interdependent economies in the European Union”, Barroso said on January 12, in a panel with Commissioners Olli Rehn (economic and monetary affairs) and Laszlo Andor (employment and social affairs). “This is the EU model. This is our economic governance in action. The Annual Growth Survey is a coherent and comprehensive plan to return Europe to growth and higher employment”. The head of the Executive said he is “confident” that “If the plan is fully implemented, Europe can return to strong economic growth and higher employment”. A unanimous “reply”. Substantially, as part of the next “European Semester”, the Commission will assesses each year the main economic challenges for the EU and identify priority actions to address them. It will present them in an “Annual Growth Survey” which consists of different parts: a Communication titled “A comprehensive response to the crisis”, the first part of which focuses on “urgent key messages, which cover the fiscal, macro-economic and thematic areas”, followed by the Progress Report on Europe 2020, and by a Macro-economic Report that presents the macro-economic prospects whilst indicating the most effective measures that will deliver positive results. The Joint Employment Report shows that the unemployment rate in EU27 is currently almost 10%. Unemployment now stands at 23.1 million persons, and that the situation is especially serious for population under25. The final part of the document consists in a Proposal for a Council Decision on employment guidelines.Public accounts, employment. The College of Commissioners addressed key issues such as governance – deemed urgent since the consequences of the 2008 crisis came to the fore – stepping up the Stability Pact, in order to redress national budget unbalances, and finally Europe 2020 Strategy, aimed at supporting growth and employment, countering social exclusion and decreasing poverty in the Old Continent. The European Spring Council (March 24-25) is called to value the Commission’s proposal and promote the adoption of national reform programs to be adopted in April. The tight schedule of the various initiatives is annexed to the other documents. In its analysis of the Macro-economic framework the Commission writes: “Europe is going through particularly challenging times. Before the crisis, several Member States deviated from the basic principles of prudent fiscal policy, and macroeconomic imbalances continued to build up”. The European economy “is now slowly emerging from the deepest recession in decades”, the labour market situation “shows signs of recovery”, but “remains fragile”. National policies and reforms. The “European semester” – viewed with legitimate perplexity given its vagueness and its obvious dependence on the political determination of EU governments – according to the Commission “changes the way governments shape their economic and fiscal policies”. Once agreed by the European Council, Member States will reflect these recommendations in both their policies and national budgets. For the first time ever, Member States and Commission will therefore jointly discuss macro-economic stability, structural reforms and boosting growth measures in a comprehensive way. The main chapters of the common strategies regard “the need for rigorous fiscal consolidation for enhancing macroeconomic stability”; “Structural reforms for higher employment”, and “growth enhancing measures”. Specific intervention has been developed for each step, such as rigorous national balances, reforming pension systems and the labour market, “attracting private capital to finance growth”. Creating cost-effective access to energy is equally underlined, which requires cost-containment and ongoing energy supply.