Category: Economy

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Analysing each Member State’s key socio-economic challenges

The Commission has today published country reports analysing each Member State’s key socio-economic challenges.

Shortcut to direct links : Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Spain.

The analysis in the country reports reflects the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy, presented in December 2019, focusing on competitive sustainability with the aim to build an economy that works for people and the planet. Implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and performance on its accompanying social scoreboard is also assessed for each Member State. The country reports focus on four dimensions: environmental sustainability, productivity gains, fairness and macroeconomic stability.

For the first time, the reports assess Member States’ progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting the macro-economic and employment policies that can help to achieve them. They also analyse the challenges and opportunities for each country arising from the climate and energy transition. In the same vein, they identify priorities for support by the Just Transition Fund. Continue reading “Analysing each Member State’s key socio-economic challenges”

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Future European economic policy must be in line with the European Green Deal

The Committee urges EU Member States to make sustainable economic growth the top priority for European and national economic policies in 2020 and beyond and recommends complementing the current accommodative monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB) with a cautiously expansive fiscal policy at euro area level.

In the EESC’s view, the Green Deal represents not only a major shift for EU economies, but also an opportunity to enhance economic prosperity and convergence within the euro area and the EU as a whole. The Green Deal should become the backbone of future EU and euro area economic policy and lead to a new economic paradigm. The economic priorities for 2020 should therefore be aligned with it.

At today’s plenary session (19/02/2020), the Committee adopted its opinions on the European Commission’s Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy 2020 (ECO/502) and on the recommendation for the economic policy of the Euro area (ECO/503). The opinions deliver the perspective and contribution of Europe’s organised civil society to the ongoing debate on the economic priorities for the year ahead and beyond in the framework of the European Semester. The priorities were discussed by the Economic and Financial Affairs Council on 18/02/2020 and will be formally adopted at the upcoming European Summit in March 2020. Continue reading “Future European economic policy must be in line with the European Green Deal”

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A strong European brand οf products and services to enhance European competitiveness

The coming years will see new prospects and challenges for European products and services, according to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Providing innovative, highly specialised products and services with well-recognised and certified key characteristics can boost European competitiveness, says the EESC.

Unanimously adopted, the EESC’s own-initiative opinion “Use-value” is back: new prospects and challenges for European products and services  aims to raise awareness of the branding of European products and services that cater to customers’ needs, as well as to social and environmental sustainability requirements.

Addressing the plenary, the rapporteur for the opinion, Dimitris Dimitriadis, said: Thirty years ago, ‘made in Europe’ was a guarantee for a product; now we are behind China, India and the United States; we have lost the European commercial brand name and want to get it back on track. Mr Dimitriadis mentioned the position of advantage of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the benefits of this. Continue reading “A strong European brand οf products and services to enhance European competitiveness”