04/01/2016 – Green Budget Europe, in collaboration with CEE BankWatch, EEB and WWF, published Country-Specific Recommendations for 23 EU Member States and the Eurozone in support of the European Semester Cycle.
Taking stock of the first year of the “streamlined” EU Semester approach, the report concludes that the European Semester should be further reformed to become an effective governance and enforcement mechanism that can ensure coherence between national fiscal policies and sustainable development objectives. To achieve this, the European Commission needs to ensure an adequate involvement of Civil Society Organisations in the Semester as well as to grant a meaningful oversight and control function to the European Parliament to avoid a growing disconnection between the Union and its citizens.