The country-specific recommendations and the communication:
The recommendations of the Council — which are specific to each EU country — encourage them to focus on aspects that will serve as a basis for sustainable and inclusive growth in the long term. In certain countries, issues arising from the 2008 financial crisis still persist and need to be addressed.
Given that the EU’s economy as a whole is now growing at its fastest rate since the crisis and that employment and investment levels are recovering, countries need to take advantage of these favourable conditions to ensure the resilience of their economies in the event of a future downturn.
The communication urges EU governments to:
The communication notes that since the European Semester was introduced in 2011, EU countries have made at least some progress on more than two thirds of the Council’s country-specific recommendations based on the Commission’s proposal.
The Commission publishes the country-specific recommendations every spring and the Council discuss and eventually validate them in summer. They are part of the European Semester, the EU’s annual cycle for economic and social policy coordination. This gives countries guidance on what can be realistically achieved in the following 12-18 months, before they take national policy decisions.
The recommendations adapt to the situation in different countries the EU-wide priorities identified in the Annual Growth Survey published on and the recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area EU governments adopted on .
Council Recommendations of on the 2018 National Reform Programme and delivering a Council opinion on the 2018 Stability or Convergence Programme for each EU country (OJ C 320, )
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Central Bank, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the European Investment Bank 2018 European Semester — Country-specific recommendations (COM(2018) 400 final, )
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