European Semester 2021 and Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan

Abstract

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the centrepiece of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) instrument, has become the European Union (EU) economic policy coordination priority. This has made it necessary to temporarily simplify the European Semester. To gain access to the RRF, the Member States (MSs) have to set out the investments and reforms to which the funds will be assigned in their national recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) and which must be aimed fundamentally at responding to climate change-related challenges, digitalisation, the strengthening of human capital and public sector efficiency. The assessment of these plans by the European Commission (EC) will be central to the EU annual economic policy coordination cycle within the European Semester, which retains the habitual Excessive Deficit and Macroeconomic Imbalance procedures.