Our colleagues from the department of Public Affairs, whose director is Yolanda Román developed the document Synthesis ATREVIA. European Semester 2016, in which the current state of the European Semester is explained. It is an exhausting evaluation process that involves the four main institutions of the European Union (the European Commission, Council of the European Union, European Parliament and the European Council) and the member States.
The European Semester is the coordination cycle of economic and budgetary policies of the member states of the European Union (EU). One of the main functions is to identify and control countries with excessive imbalances. At the moment, the EC has open procedures against eight member states: Croatia, Cyprus, Portugal, Slovenia, France, Ireland, Greece, Spain and the United Kingdom, although so far none have been sanctioned.
With respect to Spain, in the Alert Mechanism Report, the EC considered our country should be subject to a full review, being one of the 18 out of 26 countries that had to go through this process.
From the complete document Synthesis ATREVIA. European Semester 2016, we can extract four key conclusions:
- Spain’s negotiation position has been complicated by the breach of the 2015 deficit target, which is at 5.1% GDP, 0.9% more than what was previously foreseen.
- The political timing in Spain will determine negotiations. The caretaker government has limited powers.
- The future government will have the difficult task of negotiating a more realistic timetable for compliance.
- The EC has decided to postpone the announcement of the sanction which could be subjected to Spain for the repeated breach of deficit limits for July after the elections.
With the development of the document Synthesis ATREVIA. European Semester 2016, ATREVIA strengthens its commitment to research and knowledge. As part of our Public Affairs consulting services in ATREVIA, we help companies and organizations build and strengthen their positioning and influence in strategic environments in the private sector as well as in their relationships with public decision makers.
If you are interested in obtaining the document Synthesis ATREVIA. European Semester 2016 you can apply for it using the following email: agenda@atrevia.com
