2026 European Semester - Spring Package

Background

The European Economic and Social Committee’s ECO section has adopted an opinion on the European Commission’s 2026 European Semester Spring Package. Against a changing economic, fiscal, social and geopolitical backdrop, the EESC calls for a more integrated approach to economic governance that links reforms and investments with sustainable competitiveness, social cohesion and the EU’s long-term priorities. The opinion also looks ahead to a stronger connection between the European Semester and the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), while stressing that EU support for reforms should rely on positive incentives rather than punitive macroeconomic conditionality.

Key points

In the opinion, the EESC’s ECO section:

• calls for efficient implementation and delivery of reforms, balanced country-specific recommendations covering economic, social and environmental priorities, while making administrative capacity a strategic enabler of sustainable competitiveness and economic, social and environmental progress, recognising at the same time that efficient public administrations reduce transaction costs, accelerate investment decisions and improve citizens’ confidence in public institutions;
• recommends systematically integrating single market performance and social convergence into the European Semester, while promoting better regulation, greater legal certainty and simpler, more consistently implemented rules to help mobilise private investment;
• urges the EU to reflect lessons from the Recovery and Resilience Facility in the future framework and to align reforms and investments across EU, national, regional and local levels through a stronger link between the European Semester and the future MFF, while linking reforms to incentives and avoiding punitive macroeconomic conditionalities;
• proposes sustainable competitiveness and social cohesion as organising principles of the European Semester, bringing together economic, human, social and environmental capital and giving greater priority to the relationship between climate and the economy;
• reiterates the need for meaningful, structured and timely participation of organised civil society, with stakeholder involvement treated as an indicator of good governance. Consultation creates genuine value when it demonstrably contribute to policy design and implementation.

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Additional information

EESC section: Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion (ECO)

Opinion type: Referral

Rapporteur: Gonçalo LOBO XAVIER (Employers’ Group – GR I/Portugal)

Co-rapporteur: Philip VON BROCKDORFF (Workers’ Group – GR II/Malta)

Reference: ECO/703 – EESC-2026-01648-00-00-AS-TRA

Referral: COM(2026) 200 final

Date of adoption by section: 1/10/2026

Date of adoption in plenary: 21-22/10/2026

Contact

Thomas Kersten

Press Officer

Tel.: +32 (0) 473 49 49 93

Email: thomas.kersten@eesc.europa.eu

Anna Pantazi

Policy Officer

Tel.: +32 2 546 9231

Email: anna.pantazi@eesc.europa.eu