A few days after threatening disciplinary measures against France for mismanagement of its public finances, the European Union is suggesting solutions to the country via some recommendations to put its budget deficit back on a downward trajectory. Several points contained in this spring package are already at the center of the campaign for the early legislative elections.
The European Commission has just published the spring package of the European Semester containing strategic guidelines for the benefit of Member States for the competitiveness of the European Union and healthy public finances. The document includes key information on the EU’s economic and social priorities for next year on issues relating to education, employment, the environment and public spending.
In this context, the document offers France some tools capable of providing its economy with greater competitiveness. For the European Commission, this objective necessarily involves improving education. “ Improving educational outcomes and skills development is essential for EU productivity and competitiveness ”, it is noted in the document, where it is specified that this approach makes it possible to put an end to “ skills shortages and mismatches » which impact, on their part, the unemployment rate in France. An unemployment rate which remains above the European average with 7.6% compared to 6.1% at the continental level in the last quarter of 2023.
The EU recommends improving employment and education conditions…
In fact, for the European Commission, improving employment and education conditions should promote economic growth and help reduce public debt. This requires reducing public spending. For Brussels, this first involves the need to make the French tax system more efficient by removing certain tax loopholes deemed ” too numerous and representing a heavy budgetary burden “.
The European Commission, which welcomes the report on the evaluation of the quality of public action carried out in 2023, deplores, on the other hand, the lack of implementation from which it suffers. “ Going forward, it will be important to ensure that the results of the spending review have a greater impact on future budget plans », she recommends.
For its part, the competitiveness of businesses also remains at the center of the concerns of the European Commission, which is asking France for more measures to “ promote competitiveness » especially with the improvement of “ the business environment “. With this in mind, Brussels notes the reductions in taxes on production and the plan to gradually eliminate the Contribution on added value for businesses (CVAE) which should soon be applied in France.
Finally, in terms of the environment, the EU wants France to do more than implement political measures to support a fair transition towards climate neutrality. The gradual elimination of subsidies for the use of fossil fuels and the acceleration of the deployment of renewable energies are measures to be taken, according to the European Commission which must, it should be remembered, transmit new recommendations next November. targeted for the improvement of public finances. These recommendations aimed at putting the public deficit on a better trajectory must begin to be implemented within six months before the financial sanctions fall.
