Today, the Commission adopted the 2026 European Semester Spring Package . In an environment marked by geopolitical uncertainty, the package sets out policy guidance for Member States, with a particular focus on strengthening the EU's competitiveness , strategic autonomy, as well as economic and social resilience and cohesion, while maintaining fiscal sustainability.
Escalating global tensions, heightened security risks and climate-related challenges, alongside volatile energy prices and persisting cost of living pressures continue to weigh on Europe's economy, affecting both households and businesses. In response, this Spring Package, in line with the Union's Competitiveness Compass , provides guidance to steer action towards key EU priorities. It focuses on unlocking the full potential of the Single Market , closing the innovation gap, accelerating decarbonisation and reducing strategic dependencies, while promoting jobs and skills, tackling the housing crisis and ensuring social fairness and cohesion. The European Semester also supports Member States in addressing structural challenges as well as maintaining macroeconomic stability and sound public finances.
Delivering on these priorities requires sustained reforms and investment across the Union. In this context, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) , Cohesion policy and other EU funding instruments continue to play a central role in supporting Member States' reform efforts and strategic investments.
Targeted recommendations to Member States
The 2026 cycle of the European Semester provides a robust analytical framework for identifying future policy and investment needs across a broad range of areas, including those aimed at reducing economic, social and territorial disparities. In this context, the 2026 country reports analyse economic and social developments in each Member State and assess the extent to which they have been implementing the comprehensive set of country-specific recommendations adopted by the Council in 2025.
Based on the analysis and the key challenges identified in the country reports, the Commission proposes country-specific recommendations for 2026, providing tailored guidance for each Member State.
To strengthen the EU's competitiveness, the Spring Package calls on Member States to take policy action in the following areas:
- Ensuring fiscal sustainability and preserving macroeconomic stability.
- Closing the innovation gap and boosting R&D investment.
- Lowering Single Market barriers, reducing gold-plating, strengthening the rule of law , and ensuring an effective institutional framework.
- Simplifying regulatory frameworks and lowering administrative burdens , ensuring a clear and stable business environment.
- Accelerating the affordable clean energy transition, strengthening grids and storage, enhancing energy security, and aligning with climate targets.
- Promoting savings in supplementary pension schemes and improving access to innovation finance.
- Delivering simple and digital public services and fostering digital transformation .
- Promoting quality jobs , making labour markets fairer, and investing in human capital, matching education, training and skills with labour market needs.
- Combatting poverty , improving social protection and boosting access to and affordability of healthcare and long-term care .
- Increasing economic, social and territorial cohesion and reducing disparities between regions.
- Increasing the affordability of housing .
Fiscal surveillance under the Stability and Growth Pact
In spring 2026, the Commission has assessed Member States' compliance with the EU fiscal framework. The assessment covers both 2025 and 2026 and focuses on the growth of net expenditure, taking into account the flexibility provided for by the national escape clause for defence , where relevant. As regards Member States under excessive deficit procedure (EDP) , the Commission is today recommending to the Council to abrogate the excessive deficit procedure for Malta. For Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, the Commission considered that effective action has been taken towards correcting the excessive deficit. Therefore, no further steps need to be taken under the EDP at this stage.
The Commission prepared a Report under Article 126(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) to assess compliance with the deficit criterion of the Treaty for Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia. In light of the assessment contained in the report, the opening of an excessive deficit procedure is warranted for Bulgaria at this stage.
For Member States not currently under an EDP, the Commission assessed progress on the implementation of medium-term fiscal-structural plans (MTFSPs).
For Member States that benefit from a fiscal adjustment period of seven instead of four years in the context of their medium-term plans [Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Romania and Finland], the Commission also assessed the implementation of the key steps of reform and investment commitments underpinning the extension, taking into account the information provided in Annual Progress Reports . Overall, the Commission considers the all the concerned Member States have complied with their commitments in a satisfactory manner.
Going forward, Member States that take action to strengthen Europe's energy security and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels may request limited fiscal flexibility under the current National Escape Clause for defence spending. Upon request by the Member State, the scope of the clause can be expanded to include measures, undertaken since February 2026, that reduce the dependence on imported fossil fuels and thereby enhance Europe's security and resilience. Within the existing cap (1.5% of GDP) for additional expenditure for defence under the National Escape Clause, a dedicated annual cap for the period 2026-2028 (0.3% of GDP) and a cumulative cap (0.6% of GDP) over that same period will apply specifically for energy resilience measures. Importantly, this approach ensures that all fiscal sustainability safeguards remain fully in place.
Assessing macroeconomic imbalances
The Commission has assessed the existence of macroeconomic imbalances for the seven Member States selected for in-depth reviews in the 2026 Alert Mechanism Report .
Over the past year, vulnerabilities have evolved differently across Member States and have narrowed in several cases, while uncertainty has increased recently. Greece, the Netherlands, and Sweden are assessed as no longer experiencing imbalances as their macroeconomic vulnerabilities have declined over the years. Italy, Hungary and Slovakia continue to experience imbalances, as their vulnerabilities remain significant. Romania continues to experience excessive imbalances, as its vulnerabilities remain severe.
Post-programme surveillance reports
Post-programme surveillance reports (PPS) assess the economic, fiscal and financial situation of Member States that have benefited from financial assistance programmes, focusing on their repayment capacity. These assessments for Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal conclude that all four Member States retain the capacity to repay their debt.
As Spain had repaid in 2025 over 75% of the financial assistance received under the programme, this is the first round of post-programme surveillance reports that no longer includes this Member State.
Employment guidelines and social convergence challenges
The Commission is proposing updated guidelines, setting common priorities for national employment and social policies to make them fairer and more inclusive. These cover new elements focused on improving job quality in line with the Quality Jobs Roadmap , as well as investing in human capital, by strengthening skills and education for competitiveness and strategic autonomy. The employment guidelines also support the EU's fight against poverty and social exclusion by prioritising quality employment, which is a proven pathway to financial stability for people, in line with the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy , and access to adequate affordable and social housing, delivering on the European Affordable Housing Plan .
To shape these priorities, the Commission analysed employment, skills and social challenges in each Member State through the Social Convergence Framework , which is embedded in the revised economic governance framework. The findings are outlined in the Joint Employment Report 2026 , with a deeper analysis from April 2026 for Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania and Finland.
Next steps
The Eurogroup and the Council of the European Union will now discuss the documents presented in the 2026 European Semester Spring Package , with a view to endorsing the guidance offered.
The Commission will engage in a constructive dialogue with the European Parliament on the contents of this package, as well as on each subsequent step in the European Semester cycle.
