2025 European Semester - Autumn package

Key points

The EESC:

• finds it highly regrettable and incomprehensible that, in the turbulent political, social and economic global context, the European Commission has chosen not to publish the Annual Sustainable Growth Survey;
• takes the view that the serious and growing geopolitical risks and the deterioration of multilateral institutions may eventually have a serious impact on European economies, trade, inflation and growth;
• welcomes the Commission’s efforts to launch the implementation cycle of the new European governance framework and encourages the Commission to finalise this process as soon as possible;
• underlines the position of civil society that, while the Autumn Package emphasises the importance of stakeholder engagement, there is a perceived lack of concrete mechanisms to involve social partners and civil society organisations adequately and effectively at national level;
• agrees with the Commission’s proposal to launch the competitiveness compass;
• agrees with the conclusion of the Draghi report that the main factor behind the negative productivity and competitiveness differentials of the EU economy compared to the US and China is the large investment deficit accumulated over the last two decades;
• believes that investment must be financed by public and private, national and European capital;
• acknowledges the Commission’s proposal that country-specific recommendations (CSRs) should be geared towards better implementation of the reforms and investments included in the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the MFF, as both are approaching their end, in 2026 and 2027 respectively;
• believes that, in the difficult political and economic context that the EU is experiencing, better cooperation between Member States is the key to overcoming these obstacles;
• considers the Commission’s analyses and findings in the Joint Employment Report to be correct and fit to be carefully converted into CSRs;
• encourages the Commission to continue the programme to reduce the burden that excessive regulation places on European companies, reducing their ability to compete globally;
• takes the view that, in the country-specific recommendations, investment and reform proposals should prioritise tackling the serious housing problem.

Practical information

The EU Youth Test at the EESC was applied to this opinion. Slow Food Youth Network was chosen by a group of interested youth organisations to represent all of them during the opinion-making process.