Euro area economic policy (2019)

Key points:

    The EESC

• stresses that the pursuit of economic resilience should go hand in hand with increased labour market resilience;
• asks the EU institutions to adopt the guidelines and measures necessary to encourage public investment and facilitate private investment;
• welcomes the proposals to shift taxes away from labour and strengthen education systems and investment in skills, as well as the effectiveness of active labour market policies that support transitions to high quality jobs, but Member States must ensure sufficient financing for social investment and social protection systems;
• fully shares the European Commission's concern regarding the need to act against tax fraud, evasion and avoidance;
• reiterates the importance of implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights as a means of increasing resilience, promoting upward convergence and ultimately protecting the European integration project from centrifugal trends;
• welcomes the European Commission's recommendation for a symmetric rebalancing in the euro area and the call for higher wage growth in Member States with surpluses;
• believes that improving the business environment and promoting the completion of the single market, without undermining social and labour rights, are important ways of strengthening economic resilience in the euro area;
• reiterates that the Capital Markets Union is very important when it comes to financing economic activity and expresses its concern about the delays and obstacles that the development of the Banking Union is encountering;
• urges the Member States to demonstrate the necessary commitment in order to overcome disagreements on the way forward to deepening the EMU.

Press release Building resilience must be a top priority for the euro area in 2019