The European Commission pressed governments to slice deficits and step up tough structural reforms when it kicked off a new era of tighter EU-wide economic governance on Wednesday.
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| A man withdraws a twenty Euro note from a cash machine in Dublin, Ireland. |
"We are setting out to break new ground and to decisively improve the way in which we manage and coordinate our interdependent economies in the European Union," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
The move to tighten coordination across the 27-nation bloc, which includes the 17 eurozone states, aims to secure recovery on the heels of the global crisis, but more particularly break the manic cycle of debt drama and turbulence unsettling Europe.
As a first step, the EU\'s executive arm, the European Commission, issued a first-ever Annual Growth Survey setting out 10 priorities, from reining in public debt to labour market reform "to return Europe to growth and higher employment," Barroso said.
Its recommendations, requiring tailor-made solutions for the various states, are to be integrated into 2011 budgetary plans by the EU nations which, in an unprecedented move, must present the budgets to the Commission for approval in April.
The Growth Survey kicking off a new six-month EU model towards single economic governance, titled the "European Semester", had harsh warnings for the future.
"In the absence of resolute policies, potential growth is likely to remain weak, at around 1.5 percent, in the coming decade, compared with 1.8 percent in 2001-2010," it warned.
The growth outlook was even worse in the euro area, at 1.25 percent compared to average potential growth of 1.6 percent in 2001-2010.
Debt was expected to swell to 79 percent of GDP in 2010, some 20 points above pre-crisis levels in 2007, with unemployment at almost 10 percent last year in comparison to seven percent in 2007.
"Europe urgently needs structural reforms that permanently boost our capacity to create jobs, increase productivity and ensure sustainable debt," Olli Rehn, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs, said in the Financial Times.
Commenting on reforms under way, he said "there is insufficient ambition and a lack of urgency in implementation.
"That needs to change before the programmes are finalised in April."
Among measures proposed by the survey are fiscal cuts, reform of the banking sector and potentially explosive labour market reforms, including cuts in employer social security contributions, greater labour flexibility and an increase in the statutory retirement age.
Average retirement in the EU was 61.4 years old in 2008 but pension reform is a hot button issue, with moves in Greece and France to raise retirement last year causing massive strikes and protests.
The new semester was agreed in 2010 to avoid the budgetary debacles that led to multi-billion-euro bailouts of Greece and Ireland and is currently widening out to Portugal, and possibly Spain.
"Member states need to act in 2011 and 2012 to prevent a slide into sluggish and job-poor growth avoiding a \'lost decade scenario\'", the survey said.
The bloc\'s Stability and Growth Pact requires governments to keep their public deficits under 3.0 percent of GPD and debt at no more than 60 percent of GDP.
It also calls for a reduction of structural budget deficit by 0.5 percent of GDP every year.
But the commission said the target "would clearly be insufficient in many EU member states to bring the debt to GDP ratio close to the Treaty-based threshold of 60.0 in the foreseeable future."
The three main areas listed for action in the survey were fiscal consolidation for enhancing macroeconomic stability, structural reforms for higher employment and growth enhancing measures.
2011, said Rehn, "could be the year that Europe overcame the sovereign debt crisis, lifts its growth potential and reforms its economic governance".
