Abstract:

The European Semester introduced in 2010 enables the EU member countries to coordinate their economic policies and address the economic challenges facing the EU. The goals of the European Semester are: ensuring sound public finances (avoiding excessive government debt), preventing excessive macroeconomic imbalances in the EU supporting structural reforms, creating more jobs and growth, and boosting investment. The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) aims to identify, prevent and address the emergence of potentially harmful macroeconomic imbalances that could adversely affect economic stability in the EU. Fourteen scoreboard MIP indicators have been set for 2018.