The annual ESG Conference 2024

With the revision of the EU economic governance framework, which is built around the European Semester, the latter has also been adapted and strengthened in its coordination of the economic, budgetary, employment and social policies of the Member States. From 2024, national medium-term fiscal structural plans will replace the former national reform programmes and stability/convergence programmes. These plans, which have to be submitted by 20 September, should detail the reforms and investment that countries intend to adopt in order to strengthen sustainable growth, and should address the main challenges (digital, green and social) identified in the context of the European Semester (and in particular the country-specific recommendations (CSRs). The EESC sees a number of opportunities in this review and calls in particular for greater transparency in the Semester, for appropriate involvement of organised civil society and for proper monitoring of the implementation of medium-term fiscal structural plans.