The European Semester
The European Semester is the annual cycle of economic and budgetary policy coordination in the EU member states. The Semester coordinates reporting and monitoring of the EU’s economic priorities and its surveillance of the member states’ budgets and macroeconomic situation. The European Semester opens at the end of the calendar year and runs until the summer of the following year. It is then followed by a national semester for the second half of the calendar year.
• In November the European Commission opens the European Semester with the EU’s economic growth perspectives and priorities for the EU as a whole.
• In April of the following calendar year, the EU member states submit their budgetary, economic and reform programmes.
• In June, the European Commission and the Council assess these programmes, and the Council issues a set of recommendations to each member state.
• The national semester then starts, with the EU member states preparing their national budgets in September, taking into account the Council’s recommendations.
