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Top story
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2025 European Semester Spring Package sets out guidance to boost EU competitiveness
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The 2025 European Semester Spring Package analyses the key economic and social challenges across the EU and offers policy guidance to Member States with the aim of strengthening competitiveness, prosperity and resilience. To that effect, it includes country-specific recommendations (CSRs), and promotes reforms and investments aligned with these EU priorities.
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Viewpoint
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Valdis Dombrovskis, Commissioner for Economy and Productivity; Implementation and Simplification
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“While the main focus of the European Semester remains fiscal sustainability and macroeconomic stability, it is likewise a key mechanism to coordinate our common push for competitiveness, security, resilience and sustainable prosperity.”
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News
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Bulgaria meets criteria to join the euro area on 1 January 2026
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In the 2025 Convergence Report, the European Commission concluded that Bulgaria is ready to adopt the euro as of 1 January 2026 – a key milestone that would make it the twenty-first Member State to join the euro area. The Report finds that Bulgaria fulfils the four nominal convergence criteria, which are intended to ensure that a country is ready to adopt the euro and that its economy is sufficiently prepared to do so.
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Commission provides guidance on the implementation of NextGenerationEU – The road to 2026
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The Commission adopted a Communication taking stock of the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and offering guidance to Member States to ensure its successful closure in 2026. In line with the legal deadlines and the temporary nature of the Facility, Member States must meet all milestones and targets by 31 August 2026, and the Commission must make the final payments by 31 December 2026.
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Commission endorses positive preliminary assessment of Sweden's first payment request for €1.6 billion under the Recovery and Resilience Facility
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The Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Sweden's first payment request for €1.6 billion under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU. Flagship measures in this payment request include investment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 540,000 tonnes annually and the broadband access extended to over 66,000 additional buildings.
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Commission endorses positive preliminary assessment of Ireland's second payment request for €115.5 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility
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The Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Ireland's second payment request for €115.5 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Flagship measures in this payment request include a reform to simplify and harmonise the supplementary pension system and an investment to support industry decarbonisation: Ireland is accelerating the decarbonisation of the enterprise sector with the launch of the Enterprise Emissions Reduction Investment Fund, targeting manufacturing enterprises. This fund will provide support for carbon-reducing technologies, energy monitoring systems, and research and innovation.
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Events and notices
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Call for papers on the economic impact of the RRF – Deadline 15 September 2025
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The European Commission is calling for submissions of research papers for its upcoming conference on the impact of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The conference seeks both theoretical and empirical research that explores the RRF’s effects, with a focus on macroeconomic impacts, sectoral changes, governance, and lessons from performance-based budgeting. Researchers, including students and early-career scholars, are encouraged to contribute. Selected papers will be invited for presentation at the conference, which will be held in Brussels on 29 January 2026.
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Publications
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