2026 European Semester – Spring Package

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes the 2026 European Semester-Spring Package and believes that the evolving economic, fiscal, social and geopolitical environment requires a more integrated approach to economic governance, sustainable competitiveness and social cohesion that strengthens coordination between reforms, investments and the Union’s long-term strategic priorities. 
• urges the Commission to give absolute priority to the now inextricable relationship between climate and the economy, and to multiply strategies, proposals and actions to counter the effects of these crises and address their root causes;
• calls for efficient implementation and delivery of reforms, ensuring that European priorities translate into concrete national action. Country-specific recommendations (CSRs) must maintain a balanced approach across economic, social and environmental dimensions;
• considers that administrative capacity should no longer be regarded solely as a national administrative issue, but as a strategic enabler of sustainable competitiveness and economic, social and environmental progress. It calls for strengthened administrative capacity at all levels of governance, recognising that efficient public administrations reduce transaction costs, accelerate investment decisions and improve citizens’ confidence in public institutions;
• recommends strengthening the single market dimension by systematically integrating single market performance into the European Semester, with more emphasis on social convergence;
• calls for creating the conditions needed to mobilise private investment, notably through legal certainty, regulatory predictability, a stable social and political environment, a high standard of education, high-quality infrastructure and simplification;
• recommends promoting better regulation through greater legal certainty and simplification. The objective should not only be fewer rules, but better designed and more consistently implemented rules;
• considers that the experience gained from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), together with the lessons learned from its implementation, should be reflected in the future framework, which should build on the RRF’s strengths, while addressing its shortcomings;
• considers that the stronger link between the European Semester and the future multiannual financial framework (MFF) should maximise European added value by ensuring that reforms and investments are strategically aligned across EU, national, regional and local levels. The EESC also reiterates that EU action on reforms needs to be anchored in incentives, and that macroeconomic conditionalities must be avoided. 
• recommends establishing sustainable competitiveness and social cohesion as the organising principles of the European Semester. By ensuring the interconnection between the four forms of capital (economic, human, social and environmental) and the founding dynamics between economic performance, social fairness and environmental sustainability, the EU will be able to deliver tangible prosperity, economic strength and resilience for all citizens and regions;
• reiterates its call for the meaningful, structured and timely participation of organised civil society, which should become an indicator of good governance. Consultation creates genuine value only when it demonstrably contributes to better policy design and implementation.