Article 134 sets up the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC). The aim of the EFC is to promote economic policy coordination among EU countries, being the review of the economic and financial situation of the EU and EU countries one of its main tasks.

Forecasts analyse current and possible future macroeconomic developments and feed into EU policy-making.

KEY POINTS

The forecasts are published in the institutional papers series. They:

are prepared by the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission;
cover the EU, EU countries, the euro area, some of the world’s other major economies, such as the US, Japan, China, Russia and the European Free Trade Association countries, and EU candidate countries (Montenegro, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Turkey);
analyse issues such as
- gross domestic product (GDP) growth and its drivers;
- the labour market, inflation and wages and public finances;
consider macroeconomic policies to the extent that these shape the outlook for GDP growth and inflation;
focus on a time span of at least 2 years;
cover about 180 variables;
are published 4 times a year (2 fully-fledged forecasts in May and November and 2 interim forecasts in February and July) in line with the EU’s annual cycle of economic surveillance procedures, known as the European semester.

DG ECFIN also publishes:

economic briefs to inform policy discussion and debate;
discussion papers to increase awareness of the DG’s technical work;
technical papers on reports and data.

BACKGROUND

For more information, see:

Economic forecasts (European Commission).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union — Part Three — Union policies and internal actions — Title VIII — Economic and monetary policy — Chapter 3 — Institutional provisions — Article 134 (ex Article 114 TEC) (OJ C 202, 7.6.2016, pp. 105-106)

last update 18.05.2018

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