Berlin, December 2021
Insights from the Country-Specific Recommendations of the European Semester Every year, in the context of the Spring Package of the European Semester, the Commission publishes country-specific recommendations (CSRs) for each EU Member States. These CSRs are aimed at providing advice to Member States on how to improve job creation, growth and investments while achieving or maintaining sound public finances and preventing macroeconomic imbalances. The given guidance is, in theory, realistically achievable in the next 12-18 month. The CSRs are based on the priorities set for the year as announced in the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy, published in at the beginning of each Semester cycle. The CSRs were, until the introduction of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) in 2021, non-binding.
Comparisons over the years When comparing the country-specific recommendations given by the Commission and the Council in the context of the European Semester over the years, some striking observations can be made.
Less CSRs Since 2015, the European Semester has followed on more , particularly characterised by fewer in the objectives to the discretion of the Member States. The intention was to increase political ownership of Member States and national accountability, with the expectation to increase the implementation rate of recommendations. The reduction is due to (1) the new focus of the Semester: some areas are not covered in the Semester processes anymore, such as climate and energy; and (2) some policy areas were merged in one recommendation, thus not reducing the content of the CSRs but only their number.1 The following table depicts the number of CSRs for some Member States in 2012 and 2018. Table 1: number of CSRs for some EU Member States (2012 & 2018) Member State CSRs in 2012 Belgium 7 France 5 Germany 4 Austria 7 Finland 5 Italy 6 Denmark 3
CSRs in 2018 3 3 2 2 3 4 1
Low implementation rate Since the creation of the Semester, the annual implementation rate of CSRs has mainly faced a downward trend, with the only exception of 2017, where the rate slightly increased. The figure below shows the proportion of CSRs which have faced either full/substantial progress, some progress or no/limited progress every year. The decline of implementation rate for Member States facing excessive imbalances has been more substantial than other Member States since 2015, which coincides with the streamlining of the Semester.2 The intention of the Juncker Commission in 2015 to increase implementation rate due to higher national ownership was thus not achieved. The main areas of progress are the financial sector reforms and public 1
Economic Governance Support Unit (EGOV) (2020), Country-specific recommendations: An overview September 2020. 2 Efstathiou & Wolff (2018), Is the European Semester effective and useful?.