The crisis has exposed gaps in the current governance system and showed that existing instruments for economic policy coordination need to be used more fully. The Commission has put forward a comprehensive and coherent package of reforms that will strengthen the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), particularly through an increased focus on public debt and fiscal sustainability, the extension of surveillance to macroeconomic imbalances and by making enforcement more effective through the use of sanctions and incentives.

Employment declined in most of Europe during 2009, but the impact of the crisis varied across the EU depending upon labour market structure, macroeconomic position and the policy measures in place.

Tax reform is a potential way of supporting budgetary consolidation while enhancing growth. A shift from direct to indirect forms of taxation and the identification of new sources of tax revenue such as financial sector taxation could help boost revenue.

The Council adopted its position on the EU draft budget for the financial year 2011, approving the targeted cuts in the Commission’s proposal while ensuring appropriate funding for EU priorities, in particular economic recovery. The Council position amounts to €141,777 billion in commitment appropriations and €126,527 billion in payment appropriations, corresponding to 1.02% of the Gross National Income (GNI) of the EU.

Most stakeholders – political leaders, academics, and business executives – believe that deploying green technologies could help Europe to both tackle climate change and achieve sustainable economic growth. Global competition is intensifying, however, and a dearth of financing will make it difficult to scale up.

Europe has managed its response to the crisis well, according to speakers at the 11th Brussels Economic Forum. But the crisis is far from over. The Union must now embark on an ambitious programme of reforms to improve fiscal sustainability, productivity and economic governance.

European leaders meeting in Brussels on 17 June adopted Europe 2020, the new 10-year strategy to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Focusing on the strategy’s five quantified headline targets, over the coming months Member States will discuss how specific policies can be mobilised to unlock the EU’s growth potential, starting with innovation and energy policies.

DG ECFIN, along with the Employment and Internal Market DGs, published a Green Paper on Pensions on 6 July. As the EU population ages, many countries are reforming their pension systems, and the recent financial and economic crisis has highlighted certain problems.

The crisis has made the task of securing Europe’s future economic growth more difficult and exposed some structural economic weaknesses.

Examining the microeconomic consequences of the crisis can help us better understand the drivers of recovery.

Released in October 2009, the Labour Market Review analyses labour market and wage developments in the EU before and during the worst economic and financial crisis since World War II.

On 24 November, the Commission issued a consultation document on EU 2020, a new strategy to give the EU economy a brighter future.

The EU unemployment rate is expected to increase to above 10% in 2009, reversing the downward trend which started a decade ago.

Amidst an economic downturn that is deeper and more protracted than originally expected, the European Commission is advancing a coherent programme for economic recovery ...

While exiting the financial and economic crisis is an immediate priority, the effects of ageing are already expected to impact some European countries within the next ten years and will have long-term consequences for Europe ...

At its regular meeting on 5 May, the ECOFIN Council adopted regulations that facilitate access to grants from the European Social Fund ...

A Commission progress report on the implementation of the Growth and Jobs initiative was adopted by the spring European Council on 19-20 March. The country chapters detail Member States’ progress in applying the reforms needed ...

As the financial crisis infects the economy at large, the EU has unveiled its economic action plan to give the European economy a much-needed boost. This is the latest in a series of robust coordinated measures to stave off a deepening ...

On 28 November, a workshop was organised by ECFIN on the links between fiscal policy and long-term economic growth. It discussed how a better quality of public finances can help Europe’s economies cope with the dual challenge ...

Speaking at the 2nd Demography Forum, on better societies for families and older people, Commissioner Joaquín Almunia described ageing as one of the greatest forces that will reshape economies and societies in the 21st century. ...

On 11-12 December EU leaders agreed on an ambitious energy/ climate package – the “20-20-20” plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, increase the proportion of renewable energies to 20 % and make energy savings ...

How can the EU help Member States design the reform policies necessary to achieve higher economic growth and more jobs? Is the Lisbon Strategy effectively helping Member States? These and other questions lay at the heart of a conference ...

Held on 24 September, this workshop looked at new proposals for monitoring key markets in goods and services as part of the initiative to improve the governance of the single market and improve the functioning of individual market ...

On 30 July, DG ECFIN launched the on-line Micref database, a tool for monitoring and analysing the reform process that is part of the EU Lisbon Strategy. In particular, Micref aims to improve the surveillance of microeconomic reforms ...

This was the message Commissioner Joaquín Almunia gave to the OECD conference on ‘structural reform in Europe’, on 17 March in Paris. “In the current deteriorating climate, we urgently need to increase the reform ...

The EU is one of the world’s most productive economies. However, since the mid-1990s, a transatlantic productivity gap has emerged. Although productivity growth has picked up in the past two years, this is largely cyclical and, ...

The Commission’s strategic review of the relaunched Lisbon Strategy’s first three years has good news for the Union, but the next three-year cycle will need to keep up the pace. The review therefore sets out a whole series ...

Speaking on 7 November at a conference of the Deutsche Post World Net, Commissioner Almunia gave participants a broad overview of the single market and the challenges it faces for the future, and in particular the achievements of Europe’s ...

Meeting on 20 April, the Eurogroup ministers – from the euro-area Member States – discussed budgetary policies ahead of the start of national budgetary preparations for 2008. This was the first time such a discussion had ...

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council held on 8 May under the German Presidency called on Member States to step up their efforts to raise households’ awareness of and participation in non-statutory pension schemes. This ...

The efficiency of spending on education and R&D was the topic of a joint ECFIN-German Presidency workshop held in Brussels on 12 March. Deputy Director-General of DG ECFIN Marco Buti opened the workshop and participants heard presentations ...

“Both short-term, and more importantly for businesses, long-term interest rates are at historically low levels, even by German standards,” Commissioner Joaquín Almunia told business leaders from the Nordrhein-Westfalen ...

During the Spring European Council held on 8 and 9 March, European leaders discussed integrating climate change protection measures, a sustainable energy policy, and the Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs. With higher growth and falling ...

On 13 December 2006, the European Commission published its latest Annual Progress Report (APR) on the Lisbon Strategy, the partnership between the EU and the Member States to make structural reforms that focus on employment and productivity ...

Europe’s social model is facing perhaps its biggest challenge: working towards the Lisbon Agenda of more growth and jobs with a workforce that is ageing. Globalisation, new technology, ageing populations and changes to the family ...

Demographic change in Germany will enter an acute phase from 2010 onward when baby boomers start retiring. Structural economic reform is vital to sustaining Germany’s public finances over the long term. The symposium, ‘Long-run ...

Ageing populations pose a major challenge to public finances across the EU. Under current policies government debt is set to rise from 63% of GDP today to nearly 200% by 2050. But, if resolute action is taken to ensure fiscal consolidation ...

“...retirement is the problem facing Europe’s welfare systems” was the blunt message Commissioner Almunia gave in his opening address to the June conference of the EFRP, the European Federation for Retirement Provision. ...

The annual Brussels Economic Forum brings together politicians, economists, academics and civil society to discuss timely and important issues facing the European Union, with an emphasis, naturally, on the economics. The 2006 ...

12 June 2006 - ‘Adjusting to globalisation: promoting new areas of specialisation’ was the title of a workshop organised by DG ECFIN on 12 June. The countries’ experiences discussed at this workshop have ...

June 2006 - The ECOFIN Council of Ministers in June considered tax matters, in particular value added tax (VAT) and who collects it in cross-border transactions. This issue is becoming increasingly significant as the number of e-commerce transactions ...

More investment, more jobs and less regulation are key priorities for action, confirm Europe’s leaders. Since the original Lisbon Strategy was launched in 2000, appreciable progress has been made in re-engineering Europe to meet ...

5 April 2006 - Evaluating the degree of liberalisation of network industries was the subject of a workshop organised for practitioners by the European Commission and the Economic and Social Committee on 5 April. The discussions took as their starting ...

31 March 2006 - A major report on the impact of ageing on public expenditure has been submitted to the Council of Ministers. Prepared by DG ECFIN and the Economic Policy Committee (EPC), the report details new projections on the ageing-related costs ...

28 March 2006 - Reforms to labour, product and capital markets are vital for boosting growth and employment in the EU – and they need political support and careful planning to minimise disruptive consequences. At a DG ECFIN workshop held on ...

1 February 2006 - This was the subject of a presentation by Klaus Regling, Director-General of DG ECFIN, to a seminar of Belgian and Dutch economic planners on 1 February. Improvements are needed, he said, because debt has been increasing for 30 years, ...

20-21 March 2006 - ‘Labour market reforms and macroeconomic policies in the Lisbon Agenda’ was the title of a conference held by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) in Brussels on 20-21 March. In his keynote speech to the final ...

While the European Social Model is a topical subject, in fact there does not appear to be any single model. Instead there are a wide variety of models in the Member States, reflecting different histories, circumstances and political ...

The 2005 edition of the EU Economy Annual Review is devoted to globalisation. It takes a considered, non-partisan look at the economic issues globalisation raises for Europe. And it pays particular attention to those aspects that concern ...

2 December 2005 - A workshop organised by DG ECFIN considered the short-, medium- and long-term effects of structural reforms, such as changes to welfare systems, on public finances and whether trade-offs exist. For the long term we need to invest in ...

24 October 2005 - In a speech to the Austrian Chamber of Labour entitled ‘Europe: the best way towards social justice in the global world’, Commissioner Joaquín Almunia stated that globalisation and ageing are the main challenges facing ...

6 December 2005 - The monthly Economics and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) is composed of economics and finance ministers from the Member States and Commission representatives. The earlier November ECOFIN Council rapped Hungary for not taking earlier ...

27 October 2005 - ‘The Lisbon Strategy – closing the gap’ was the title of the annual forum of the European Investment Bank held in the Finnish capital. The EIB is taking on an increasing role in funding European R&D in addition ...