European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social priorities for 2024

Tabled by Eugenia Rodríguez Palop, Leila Chaibi

12. Removed: Takes note of Added: Regrets the Commission’s proposals for new regulations within the revision of the economic governance framework of April Removed: 2023 to strengthen debt sustainability and its reduction and enhance sustainable and inclusive economic growth through investment and reforms, including fiscal adjustment paths that allow for social investment; Added: 2023; condemns the return of austerity with the fiscal rules agreed on in the Economic Governance Review; warns that these new rules will entail a massive, unrealistic and unsustainable fiscal adjustment that could exceed EUR 100 billion overall for Member States in order to comply with the debt and deficit reduction criteria imposed; underlines that, over a four year period, the yearly adjustments to meet the deficit reduction targets could be as high as EUR 26 billion for France, EUR 25 billion for Italy, EUR 14 billion for Spain and EUR 11 billion for Germany; emphasises that such a steep reduction in public expenditure will entail a rise in unemployment and will have terrible social consequences, as it will be implemented by squeezing and degrading public services, enacting structural reforms that undermine workers’ rights and social protection, and continuing chronic underinvestment in critical collective and public infrastructure, in line with the general direction of the EU’s economic governance so far; calls on the Commission to assess which expenditures, reforms and investments are … socioeconomic objectives required to comply with common EU priorities defined in the Removed: revised economic governance framework, as well as milestones in the national recovery and resilience plans, and required to implement country-specific recommendations as well as future medium-term fiscal structural plans; calls on the Commission to propose a new system for excessive deficit calculations based on this assessment in order to increase fairness during the green and digital transitions, social resilience and the implementation of the EPSR, while ensuring the sustainability of public finances in the Member States; Added: EPSR;

Wording as published by the EP, in English. PE760.472