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"I am worried about the degree of influence of the country-specific recommendations", said Eva Kjer Hansen, head of the Europe committee in the Danish parliament. "It’s somehow underestimated how much it actually means because you either have to follow them or you have to explain why you are not following them", she added.
The European Semester, now in its third year, kicks off at the end of each year with the Commission setting EU growth priorities. This is followed by governments submitting national reform programmes and then the Commission issuing specific economic policy recommendations.
The Dutch are particularly concerned about the process because they are breaching the EU's budget deficit rules - meaning Brussels gets more of a say on economic decisions.
But even in fiscally sound countries, such as Finland, there is potential for difficulty. Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, chair of the grand committee in the Finnish parliament, notes there could be problems if the commission issues "too concrete" instructions on "grey areas" such as wage policy - an issue not dealt with by politicians but rather by social partners. She underlined the "big responsibility" that governments have in making sure parliaments are involved, noting that Helsinki last year worked to change wording on the pension age, "the hottest topic" of the recommendations.