On Wednesday, the Commission unveils the second part of the European Semester Autumn Package. The first part, presented on 26 November, marked the first launch of the implementation cycle under the new economic governance framework. This second instalment builds upon the first and includes the following: the Commission’s proposal for a recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area for 2025, the 2025 Alert Mechanism Report, and the Commission’s proposal for the 2025 Joint Employment Report.
The European Semester will continue to identify socio-economic challenges and provide guidance on the policy action needed to address them. For this purpose, the 2025 European Semester cycle will improve its analytical basis and strengthen the dialogue with Member States and other stakeholders on concrete policy actions. Based on this, the European Semester Spring Package will provide country-specific recommendations (CSRs) to tackle main country-specific challenges identified in the Country Reports.
Proposal for a recommendation on the euro area economic policy for 2025
The euro area recommendation presents policy advice to euro area Member States on issues that affect the functioning of the euro area as a whole. This year’s euro area recommendation calls on Member States to act both individually, including through the implementation of their Recovery and Resilience Plans, and collectively within the Eurogroup to improve competitiveness, to foster economic resilience and to continue ensuring macroeconomic and financial stability.
In particular, the recommendation calls to:
- Strengthen innovation, including in critical technologies.
- Improve the business environment, reinforcing access to funding and reducing administrative burden and regulatory complexity.
- Support public and private investment in areas of common priorities, such as the green and digital transitions and the build-up of defence capabilities.
- Promote upskilling and reskilling of the workforce, while further increasing labour market participation.
- Ensure compliance with the new fiscal framework, improve debt sustainability and monitor risks to macro-financial stability.
Alert Mechanism Report
The Alert Mechanism Report (AMR) serves as a screening tool to identify potential macroeconomic imbalances that could impact the economy of individual Member States or the EU as a whole. It marks the start of the annual cycle of the macroeconomic imbalance procedure, highlighting which Member States require in-depth reviews to determine whether they are experiencing imbalances.
In 2025, in-depth reviews will be prepared for the nine countries that were identified as experiencing imbalances or excessive imbalances in 2024: Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden.
This year’s AMR concludes that an additional in-depth review is warranted for Estonia due to specific risks of newly emerging imbalances. The country continues to face accumulating cost competitiveness losses driven by strong cost pressures, a worsening current account, and rising house prices and household borrowing.
Source: European Commission
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