Annexes to COM(2019)650 - Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy 2020 - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
dossier | COM(2019)650 - Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy 2020. |
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document | COM(2019)650 |
date | December 17, 2019 |
By developing this new approach in this Semester cycle and over the years to come, the European Semester will directly support the European Union and its Member States in delivering the SDGs across its economic and employment policies and ensure that the economy works for everyone and growth is sustainable.
Conclusions and next steps
Putting this sustainable growth strategy to work is a joint endeavour. It will require the combined action and commitment of all European actors. The European Council is invited to endorse this strategy. Member States should take account of the priorities the Commission has identified here in their national policies and strategies, as set out in their Stability or Convergence Programmes and their National Reform Programmes. On that basis, the Commission will propose country-specific recommendations, which Member States will eventually adopt in the Council. Member States are thus ultimately responsible for the content and implementation of these recommendations.
Member States should make full use of the available EU policy and funding instruments. The Commission stands ready to support Member States in their reform efforts by providing technical support, in particular through its proposed Reform Support Programme, for all Member States. As part of that, for euro-area Member States, the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness is expected to provide tailored incentives and support for reforms and investment. Finally, cohesion policy funds play a crucial role in supporting social and territorial cohesion.
Economic governance and democratic accountability must go hand in hand. The European Parliament should have a stronger voice on the EU economic governance. To this end, the Commission will engage in a dialogue with the European Parliament on how to make this operational going forward. As a first step, Members of the Commission in charge of economic matters will come to the European Parliament before each key stage in the European Semester cycle. This enhanced democratic accountability of the European Semester should help to enhance ownership and therefore reform implementation. More broadly, the Commission will continue the dialogue with Member States, and invites the Member States to involve national parliaments, social partners and all other relevant stakeholders.
(1) The Proposal for a Joint Employment Report from the Commission and the Council, adopted together with the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (COM(2019) 653), presents a detailed account of labour market and social policy developments, including through the Social Scoreboard
(2) The 2018 Ageing Report https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/ip079_en.pdf
(3)
Since 2009, Ecodesign has been delivering substantial energy savings and associated avoided CO2 emissions, as well as, increasingly, material efficiency savings.
(4) Single Market Performance Report SWD(2019) 443
(5)
Commission proposal for a Council Regulation laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027, COM/2018/322