The European Semester Group (ESG) has 42 members, a three-person presidency — with Luca Jahier (Group III) and Gonçalo Lobo (Group I) as vice-presidents — and a three-person secretariat headed by Jakob Andersen and supported by a trainee. Its structure is completed by 27 tripartite national delegations making up a further 39 members.
The name of the Group clearly defines its remit: to analyse and issue opinions on EU economic governance and its procedures and content, including the stages that take place at national level. Of the various documents that make up the autumn and spring Semester packages, the ESG most closely monitors the Annual Sustainable Development Strategy and the two opinions (the initial one and the additional one) that the Committee adopts on the Strategy each year. The Group holds five meetings per year, one of which is an open conference that usually takes place in May or June.
The ESG's current mandate began in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and with an EU response that represents a profound shift in the economic policy model from the one adopted in the 2008-2012 crisis: a combination of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies and an EUR 750 billion Recovery Plan, financed by European debt. The ESG's work has since focused on analysing the NextGenerationEU and the associated National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs). This has boosted the role of the Group’s national delegations, which are playing a key part in drafting the two resolutions to be adopted by the EESC on the recovery plans. The first, adopted by the EESC plenary in February 2021, focused on evaluating the involvement of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the drafting of the NRRPs. The evaluation was based on feedback from national delegations, in the form of a five-question survey, and on various national debates. The Resolution criticised the fact that, despite the provisions of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM) Regulation, CSO participation has generally been low and of poor quality.
The ESG and its national delegations are currently drafting a new resolution, to be discussed at the May Plenary, which will assess the content of the plans, their impact on the economy and society, and the involvement of CSOs in their implementation. This time, the survey contains 21 questions. Consideration will also be given to the conclusions of the discussions that have taken place, such as the two national conferences co-organised with the national ESCs in two of the countries that will receive the largest amounts of RRM funds: Spain and Italy. The main evaluations of NRRPs being carried out by European think tanks, as well as data provided by Recover-EC, will be used as a frame of reference.
Once the work on drafting the second resolution has been completed, the Group’s activity will focus on the reform of the European Semester and on the assessment of the investment needed to achieve the aims of the European Green Deal and in particular those required for the just transition towards a climate-neutral green economy in 2050. The reform of the European Semester procedures, linked to the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact, will be the topic of discussion at the upcoming ESG conference on 3 June. To analyse the investment needs of the Green Deal, the ESG will propose that the ECO section, together with the NAT section, organise a conference in the last quarter of the year.
I shall conclude by pointing out that, in the coming months, the ESG will certainly have to address the economic fallout of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and of the sanctions adopted by the EU in response to this. We will also have to press for restoration of the sovereignty of our neighbouring country - one of our family.
Javier Doz, President of the European Semester Group
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