Hearing on the European Semester held by the Bundestag's Committee on the Affairs of the European Union

23 April 2013

Several experts from academia and think-tanks stated at the hearing that the European Semester offered opportunities to enhance the coordination of economic policies, but failed to take social issues sufficiently into account, and that it was also resulting in a number of democratic problems.

The experts took the view that enhanced coordination of economic policies is not the preliminary stage of an ‘economic government’, but rather a form of support for individual countries in implementing policies. The experts said that the essential aim had to be to achieve balanced budgets. Reforms and new rules would have the intended effect, but patience was required regarding their implementation.

Social issues should not, the experts argued, be viewed solely in terms of reducing long-term unemployment. The reports produced within the framework of the European Semester should be supplemented by national social reports.

In democratic terms, the experts felt that the crisis had strengthened technocratic and intergovernmental decision-making, and undermined and in some respects reversed past steps to democratise the EU through progressive parliamentarisation. The experts said that coordination in the framework of the European Semester was taking place in the shadow of European decisions. No agreement has been reached about the role of the European Parliament in this context, according to the experts. Particularly at the end of the European Semester process, it is largely sidelined, meaning that it can only play a reactive role in terms of oversight.

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