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Country-specific recommendations 2015: Further efforts needed to support a robust recovery
The European Commission has adopted country-specific economic policy recommendations for 2015 and 2016 that call for national actions to create jobs and stimulate growth. The recommendations announced on 13 May reflect the Commission’s economic and social agenda. Since President Juncker’s Commission took office in November 2014 and published its Annual Growth Survey 2015, this agenda has focused on three mutually reinforcing pillars: boosting investment, implementing structural reforms and pursuing fiscal responsibility. The successful implementation of the 2015 country-specific recommendations will be key to making Europe’s return to jobs and growth sustainable and less dependent on the external, cyclical factors that currently support the recovery. EU Ministers will discuss the country-specific recommendations in June before EU Heads of State and Government endorse them on 25-26 June. They will be formally adopted in July.
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Today we ask Member States to ensure that the ongoing economic recovery is more than a seasonal phenomenon…these recommendations are not about Brussels lecturing governments. They are about encouraging national efforts to deliver the jobs and growth that we collectively need.
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Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner responsible for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs
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Commission recommends closing Excessive Deficit Procedures for two countries
As part of the package of country-specific recommendations issued on 13 May, the Commission has also adopted several decisions on Member States’ public finances under the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). The Commission recommended closure of the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) for Malta and Poland, and that the Council decide that the UK has not taken effective action to comply with a December 2009 recommendation to correct the excessive deficit by the financial year 2014-15. The Commission recommended giving the UK an extra two years to bring its deficit below the 3% of GDP reference value. The Commission also prepared a report for Finland, which concludes that Finland does not comply with the debt and the deficit criterion of the SGP. The Commission also concluded that opening an EDP for Belgium and Italy is not warranted. France is currently under an EDP and must take effective action by the deadline of 10 June set by the Council. Next steps under the SGP include a Decision by the Council of EU finance ministers in June.
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EU and Ukraine sign MoU for additional EUR 1.8 billion in macro-financial assistance
On 22 May, the European Commission and Ukraine signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and loan agreement of up to € 1.8 billion for the third macro-financial assistance (MFA) programme to Ukraine. The MoU includes a policy programme drawing from Ukraine's ambitious reform programme and covers important economic and structural policy measures in six areas: public finance management, governance and transparency, the business environment, the energy sector, social safety nets, and the financial sector, by taking into account Ukraine's reform commitments under its various programmes with multilateral partners, such as the IMF and the World Bank. The Commission's proposal of 8 January for the third MFA programme to Ukraine was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 15 April. The MFA is intended to assist Ukraine in addressing its critical financing needs and is envisaged to be disbursed by early 2016 with three equal tranches of €600 million, provided that the MoU is successfully implemented and Ukraine's IMF programme remains on track.
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EU Investment Plan: Innovative French SMEs to benefit from the first EFSI pre-financing
Innovative French small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) will be among the first to benefit from the first pre-financing provided by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). The financing plan was originally announced by the European Investment Bank on 17 February and is part of the EUR 315 billion EU Investment Plan. The pre-financing announced on 12 May is the result of an agreement between the European Investment Bank and Bpifrance, France’s public investment bank. Thanks to the guarantees provided by EFSI, Bpifrance will provide up to EUR 420 million in financing to innovative companies over the next two years. This is the first financing operation to benefit from guarantees provided by EFSI, even though the fund is not yet officially operational. The financing scheme allows the European Investment Fund to accelerate the deployment of resources dedicated to financing innovative SMEs under the InnovFin programme of Innovation Horizon 2020.
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Flash estimate: April 2015 Euro area annual inflation up to 0.0%
Euro area annual inflation is expected to be 0.0% in April 2015, up from -0.1% in March, according to a flash estimate from Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU. Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, services (0.9%, compared with 1.0% in March) and food, alcohol & tobacco (0.9%, compared with 0.6% in March) are expected to have the highest annual rates in April, followed by non-energy industrial goods (0.1%, compared with 0.0% in March) and energy (-5.8%, compared with -6.0% in March).
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Going further together: the ageing population – ECFIN video explains why we need to prepare today for demographic change
The 5th video in the series “European Economy Explained” was released on 12 May. “Going further together – The ageing population” explains the challenge to European society and public finances posed by demographic evolution. As Europeans live longer and have fewer children, the proportion of elderly citizens will increase while the proportion of working-aged citizens will fall. In fact, by 2016, there will only be two workers for every person aged 65 or over, half as many as today. This demographic shift will have a profound impact on public finances, particularly spending on pensions and healthcare. Spending on health and long-term care is expected to increase by two percentage points of GDP by 2060. The Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) launched the series of videos to explore key economic policy topics. Using animations in a storytelling format, the videos make understanding complex economic policies easy and entertaining.
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ECFIN engages with citizens at Open Door Day; coin competition celebrates 30 years of the EU flag
On 9 May, the Commission opened its doors to the public to commemorate Europe Day. This year, some 16 000 visitors came to visit the Berlaymont building in Brussels to get a first hand glimpse behind the scenes of the ‘economic nerve centre’ of the Commission. Staff from the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) were on hand to talk to interested citizens about topical issues, such as the latest EU economic forecast, jobs, growth and investment in the EU, how to achieve a deeper and fairer European Monetary Union, and much more. Some special features this year included an interactive game to engage citizens in setting the building blocks of the EU investment plan, an interactive stand where citizens could vote for their favourite design of the next commemorative euro coin and a machine that let citizens press their own souvenir medal to commemorate the occasion.
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The 2015 Ageing Report: Economic and budgetary projections for the 28 EU Member States (2013-2060)
Over the coming decades, as Europeans live longer and have fewer children, Europe’s population will turn increasingly ‘grey’. Demographic trends also mean that the proportion of workers supporting those in retirement will halve from an average of four today, to just two, by 2060. The 2015 Ageing Report sheds light on the economic, budgetary and societal challenges that policy makers will have to face in the future as a result of these trends. The report’s long-term projections provide an indication of the timing and scale of challenges that can be expected so as to inform European policy makers about the scale and timing of the challenges they face.
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Ageing report – Population projections in EU Member States
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The EU population is projected to increase in size slightly by 2060, but with a much older age profile than today. The EU population is projected to increase by 5% from 507 million in 2013 to a peak of 526 million in 2050, before declining slowly to 523 million in 2060.
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Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
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