BETA

Procedure completed



2012/2150(INI) European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2012 priorities
Next event: Debate in Parliament 2012/10/25 more...
RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Opinion AFCO RANGEL Paulo (EPP)
Opinion BUDG TRAUTMANN Catherine (S&D)
Lead ECON GAUZÈS Jean-Paul (EPP) GOULARD Sylvie (ALDE)
Opinion EMPL CORNELISSEN Marije (Verts/ALE)
Opinion ENVI
Opinion FEMM MATERA Barbara (EPP)
Opinion IMCO HARBOUR Malcolm (ECR)
Opinion REGI
Lead committee dossier: ECON/7/09626
Legal Basis RoP 050, RoP 048

Activites

  • 2012/10/26 Text adopted by Parliament, single reading
  • 2012/10/25 Debate in Parliament
  • 2012/10/12 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
    • A7-0312/2012 summary
  • #3189
  • 2012/10/09 Council Meeting
  • 2012/10/09 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • #3188
  • 2012/10/04 Council Meeting
  • #3187
  • 2012/09/24 Council Meeting
  • 2012/09/13 Amendments tabled in committee
  • 2012/09/11 Deadline Amendments
  • 2012/07/18 Committee draft report
  • 2012/07/05 EP officialisation

Documents

AmendmentsDossier
155 2012/2150(INI)
2012/09/07 FEMM 32 amendments...
source: PE-494.805
2012/09/13 BUDG 123 amendments...
source: PE-496.291

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)

activities/3
date
2012-09-13T00:00:00
docs
url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE496.316 type: Amendments tabled in committee title: PE496.316
body
EP
type
Amendments tabled in committee
activities/3/date
Old
2012-10-25T00:00:00
New
2012-09-13T00:00:00
activities/3/docs
  • url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE496.316 type: Amendments tabled in committee title: PE496.316
activities/3/type
Old
Debate scheduled
New
Amendments tabled in committee
activities/9/body
Old
EC
New
EP
activities/9/commission
  • DG: url: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/economy_finance/index_en.htm title: Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner: REHN Olli
activities/9/type
Old
Prev DG PRES
New
Debate in Parliament
activities/10/docs/0
url
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P7-TA-2012-408
type
Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
title
T7-0408/2012
activities/10/type
Old
Results of vote in Parliament
New
Text adopted by Parliament, single reading
procedure/stage_reached
Old
Awaiting Parliament 1st reading / single reading / budget 1st stage
New
Procedure completed
activities/11/docs
  • url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda.do?id=22058&l=en type: Results of vote in Parliament title: Results of vote in Parliament
activities/11/type
Old
Vote scheduled
New
Results of vote in Parliament
activities/4/text
  • The Council took stock of lessons learned from the 2012 European Semester monitoring exercise and possible improvements for 2013. The European Semester involves simultaneous monitoring of the Member States' economic, fiscal, employment and social policies, in accordance with common rules, over a six-month period every year. It was first organised in 2011.

    Although the outcome of this year's exercise was considered satisfactory overall, implementation is now being reviewed. The process has been made more challenging by strengthened rules on economic governance.

    The main themes discussed were the following:

    Focus on results: during this first phase, the Council could focus on an implementation review which would require preparation both by the Commission, in cooperation with individual Member States, and the Council preparatory bodies. In this regard, the Council could welcome the proposal of the Commission to organise a series of bilateral meetings in October, to take stock of planned actions to implement the 2012 recommendations.

    Holistic approach:

    ·        The General Affairs Council(GAC) has maintained an overview, notably through the semester roadmap, the synthesis report on Council discussions on the Annual Growth Survey, and approval of Country-specific Recommendations (CSR) in their entirety before EC endorsement. In 2013, while maintaining the broad involvement of Council formations, the role of Coreper could be better exploited.

    ·        For 2013, the distribution of tasks between the different Council configurations could be better articulated through stronger involvement of the Presidency, on the basis of discussion at Coreper and the GAC. Given the integrated nature of the semester and the number of cross-cutting issues, the division of labour between the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) and the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) is an issue.

    ·        The Competitiveness Council plays a key role in a number of policy areas, notably the Single Market. Its importance for the European semester is highlighted by the Commission decision to issue, from 2013, annual reports on the integration of the Single Market as an annex to the AGS. A stronger highlight could be given to the issues dealt with the COMPET Council which are directly relevant to the European semester.

    Dialogue:

    ·        Deeper dialogue from a very early stage, including through higher level and political contacts, could provide better information on CSR implementation. The Council could welcome the Commission proposal to organise three series of bilateral meetings at key moments in the preparatory cycle, in October, December/January, and April.

    ·        In the next cycle, starting with autumn 2012, thematic discussions on overarching issues at committee and Council level, could help prepare for CSR handling. In this regard, the Council could welcome the willingness of the Commission to further pursue multilateral surveillance of CSRs throughout the year.

    ·        Given the time constraints on CSR, Member States could explore how to better involve national parliaments and, where relevant, social partner organisations, in the first phase of the semester.

    CSR Handling:

    ·        Properly addressing the time constraints would require an overhaul of Commission and Member States' calendars for statistics, budget preparation etc, including changes in the six-pack. However, this could only be considered for the future.

    ·        In the same context it could be assessed whether the CSR exercise should be organised in a longer cycle, for example every two years.

    ·        Under current constraints, Member States could improve the situation by submitting their National Reform Programmes and Stability or Convergence Programmes by mid-April, facilitated by the Commission commitment to provide earlier guidance on National Reform Programme structure and content. Subsequently, the Commission could consider a somewhat earlier presentation of the CSR.

    ·        The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) was not fully synchronised with the rest of the semester.

    ·        The Council could welcome the Commission's intentions to adopt the Alert Mechanism Report(AMR) together with the Annual Growth Survey(AGS) and the in-depth reviews by end-March.

    The Councils ECOFIN and EPSCO will continue work on the question during their meetings on 4 and 9 October respectively.

activities/8/docs/0/text
  • The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted the own-initiative report by Jean-Paul GAUZES (EPP, FR) on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2012 priorities.

    The committee notes that the European Semester framework was finally codified in Regulation (EU) No 1175/2011 and has an essential role to play, leading the Union in taking further steps towards the completion of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It also notes that this is the first time that the European Semester has been fully implemented and the necessary lessons must be drawn in order for it to reach its full potential.

    Members are concerned to note that, in many Member States, national parliaments, social partners and civil society were not involved in the European Semester process. It urges the Commission to ensure that more democratic legitimacy be given to the process through the involvement of national parliaments, social partners and civil society.

    Lauding the economic dialogue held so far between European Parliament and national representatives, the report emphasises the importance of this dialogue with a view to achieving a fully operational European Semester framework and attaining the necessary level of democratic accountability with regard to all those involved.

    Members take stock of the various European Semester economic policy coordination proposals agreed at EU level and then translated into action at in each Member State. They note several areas in which the Commission and Member States could improve coordination. 

    They welcome the measures that have been proposed but stress the need for proper coherence within and among the different Member States’ recommendations, for better use of the macroeconomic scoreboard and for account to be taken of the negative spill-over effects of individual members’ economic policies. The report notes that most of the structural reforms are concentrating on a small number of areas, such as labour markets, the taxation system, the banking sector, the pension system, the services sector, liberalising certain industries, improving the efficiency and quality of public expenditure, cutting red tape, removing unnecessary layers of government, combating tax evasion, and reforming mortgage and real estate markets. However, the committee expresses its concern about the fact that no recommendations have been made on the Europe 2020 objectives to those Member States with a financial assistance programme. It calls on the Commission to assess the impact of the economic adjustment programme on progress towards the Europe 2020 headline targets and to propose modifications designed to bring the adjustment programme into line with the Europe 2020 objectives.

    The report urges the Commission:

    • to avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach to the recommendations given to Member States and to ensure that such recommendations are made according to the specific needs of the Member State concerned;
    • to be more explicit in its recommendations, to continue to monitor recommendations made in the past, including detailed explanation and evaluation in those cases where the Commission thinks a country has only partially followed the recommendations and to take full account of the different economic and social realities of each Member State;
    • to make recommendations to Member States on how to minimise the negative spill-over effects of their internal policies and facilitate compliance of other Member States.

    The committee encourages Member States to follow strictly the rules set by the Stability and Growth Pact, as modified by the ‘six-pack’, by pursuing differentiated growth-friendly fiscal consolidation taking into account country-specific circumstances, and to render public finances more resilient and reduce pressure from the banking sector.

    Members turn to democratic scrutiny, and note with concern that the European Parliament has been constantly marginalised in the main economic decisions resulting from the crisis. They consider that it must be involved in order to increase the legitimacy of decisions that affect all citizens. They recall that the European Parliament must be recognised as the appropriate European democratic forum for providing an overall evaluation at the end of the European Semester. As a sign of this recognition, representatives of the EU institutions and the economic bodies involved in the process should provide information to Members of the European Parliament when asked to do so.

    Sectoral contributions to the European Semester 2012

    Employment and Social Policies: the committee deplores the fact that, despite their political commitment during the 2012 Spring European Council and the Commission’s guidance in the Employment Package, most Member States did not submit a National Job Plan (NJP) as part of their 2012 NRPs. They urge the Commission to call on Member States to deliver their NJPs as soon as possible, and make some recommendations on the content of NJPs, including comprehensive measures for job creation and green employment. The Commission is asked to follow up its plan for a labour market monitoring system based on objective data and for an individual tracking scheme for countries that do not comply with country-specific recommendations.

    Budgetary Policies: the report urges the Commission, in its next Annual Growth Survey to underline the role of the EU budget in the European Semester process by providing concrete data on its triggering, catalytic, synergetic and complementary effects on overall public expenditure at local, regional and national levels. It believes, moreover, that funding at EU level can generate savings for the Member States’ budgets and that this should be emphasised.

    Members go on to urge the Council, during negotiations on the 2013 EU budget, to accept a political and public debate on the level of appropriations needed to implement the ‘Compact for Growth and Jobs’ adopted at the June 2012 European Council. They express strong concern at the position repeatedly taken by the Council to reduce artificially the level of payment appropriations available in the EU budget, which would jeopardise the EU’s ability to meet its legal and political commitments. The report calls on the Council to agree with Parliament and the Commission on a common method to assess real payment needs.

    Member States are asked to seize the possibilities agreed in the ‘Compact for Growth and Jobs’ to consider reallocations within their national structural and cohesion fund envelopes (EUR 55 billion) in support of research and innovation, SMEs (including facilitating their access to EU funds) and youth employment; calls on the Commission to provide, in its AGS 2013 to be published in November 2012, a full and complete picture of what has been achieved in that respect.

    Internal market: Members urge the Commission to make single market governance a key priority, since it contributes substantially to reaching the targets of the European Semester. They take the view that the Commission’s country-specific recommendations should offer the Member States more practical solutions for improving the functioning of the single market, so that stronger public support and political commitment are created to encourage the completion of the single market. The Council and the Commission are asked to link the European Semester to the Single Market Act in order to secure the coherence of European economic policy and the creation of sustainable growth. Members also want the Commission to step up its actions in ensuring the proper implementation and enforcement of EU legislation in the Member States by making determined use of all its powers;

    Gender Equality: lastly, Members reiterate their call to integrate a gender equality perspective into the European Semester process, calling on the Commission to propose to a uniform format and criteria for integrating a gender equality perspective into the NRPs.

activities/8/docs/0/url
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A7-2012-312&language=EN
activities/8
date
2012-10-12T00:00:00
docs
type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading title: A7-0312/2012
body
EP
type
Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
activities/6
date
2012-10-09T00:00:00
body
CSL
type
Council Meeting
council
Economic and Financial Affairs ECOFIN
meeting_id
3189
activities/6/committees
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: AFCO date: 2012-09-05T00:00:00 committee_full: Constitutional Affairs rapporteur: group: EPP name: RANGEL Paulo
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: BUDG date: 2012-07-17T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgets (Associated committee) rapporteur: group: S&D name: TRAUTMANN Catherine
  • body: EP shadows: group: ALDE name: GOULARD Sylvie responsible: True committee: ECON date: 2012-05-30T00:00:00 committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs (Associated committee) rapporteur: group: EPP name: GAUZÈS Jean-Paul
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: EMPL date: 2012-06-14T00:00:00 committee_full: Employment and Social Affairs (Associated committee) rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: CORNELISSEN Marije
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee: ENVI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: FEMM date: 2012-05-30T00:00:00 committee_full: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality rapporteur: group: EPP name: MATERA Barbara
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: IMCO date: 2012-07-10T00:00:00 committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection rapporteur: group: ECR name: HARBOUR Malcolm
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI
activities/6/date
Old
2012-10-08T00:00:00
New
2012-10-09T00:00:00
activities/6/type
Old
EP 1R Committee
New
Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
activities/5/body
Old
EP
New
CSL
activities/5/council
Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs
activities/5/date
Old
2012-10-09T00:00:00
New
2012-10-04T00:00:00
activities/5/meeting_id
3188
activities/5/type
Old
Vote scheduled in committee, 1st reading/single reading
New
Council Meeting
activities/7/type
Old
Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading
New
Debate scheduled
activities/8
body
EC
date
2012-10-25T00:00:00
type
Prev DG PRES
commission
DG: url: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/economy_finance/index_en.htm title: Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner: REHN Olli
activities/9
date
2012-10-26T00:00:00
body
EP
type
Vote scheduled
activities/5
body
EP
date
2012-10-08T00:00:00
type
EP 1R Committee
activities/6/date
Old
2012-10-08T00:00:00
New
2012-10-09T00:00:00
activities/7/date
Old
2012-10-26T00:00:00
New
2012-10-25T00:00:00
procedure/subtype
Old
Initiative
New
Strategic initiative
activities/4
date
2012-09-24T00:00:00
body
CSL
type
Council Meeting
council
General Affairs
meeting_id
3187
committees/1/committee_full
Old
Budgets
New
Budgets (Associated committee)
activities/3/docs/0/url
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE496.316
committees/6/date
2012-07-10T00:00:00
committees/6/rapporteur
  • group: ECR name: HARBOUR Malcolm
activities/3
date
2012-09-13T00:00:00
docs
type: Amendments tabled in committee title: PE496.316
body
EP
type
Amendments tabled in committee
procedure/dossier_of_the_committee
ECON/7/09626
procedure/legal_basis/1
Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament EP 050
procedure/stage_reached
Old
Preparatory phase in Parliament
New
Awaiting Parliament 1st reading / single reading / budget 1st stage
activities
  • body: EP date: 2012-07-05T00:00:00 type: EP officialisation
  • date: 2012-07-18T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE492.923 type: Committee draft report title: PE492.923 body: EP type: Committee draft report
  • body: EP date: 2012-09-11T00:00:00 type: Deadline Amendments
  • date: 2012-10-08T00:00:00 body: EP type: Vote scheduled in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • date: 2012-10-26T00:00:00 body: EP type: Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading
committees
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: AFCO date: 2012-09-05T00:00:00 committee_full: Constitutional Affairs rapporteur: group: EPP name: RANGEL Paulo
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: BUDG date: 2012-07-17T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgets rapporteur: group: S&D name: TRAUTMANN Catherine
  • body: EP shadows: group: ALDE name: GOULARD Sylvie responsible: True committee: ECON date: 2012-05-30T00:00:00 committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs (Associated committee) rapporteur: group: EPP name: GAUZÈS Jean-Paul
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: EMPL date: 2012-06-14T00:00:00 committee_full: Employment and Social Affairs (Associated committee) rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: CORNELISSEN Marije
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee: ENVI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee: FEMM date: 2012-05-30T00:00:00 committee_full: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality rapporteur: group: EPP name: MATERA Barbara
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee: IMCO
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI
links
other
  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/economy_finance/index_en.htm title: Economic and Financial Affairs commissioner: REHN Olli
procedure
reference
2012/2150(INI)
title
European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2012 priorities
legal_basis
Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament EP 048
stage_reached
Preparatory phase in Parliament
summary
See also
subtype
Initiative
type
INI - Own-initiative procedure
subject
5.10.01 Convergence of economic policies, public deficit, interest rates