The link between the European Semester and the next EU budget

On 23 March 2026, Zsolt Darvas participated as a speaker in the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs Working Group on the Scrutiny of the Economic Governance Framework discussion, along with Stéphanie Riso (Director-General, Directorate-General for Budget, European Commission), Maarten Verwey (Director-General, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission), and Olivier Vardakoulias (Economist, Climate Action Network Europe). The discussion was chaired by Irene Tingali, Member of the European Parliament.

In his presentation, Mr Darvas assessed whether national reform recommendations made in the context of the European Semester could sensibly be set as a condition for payouts from the EU budget. He argued that, in general, this would not be reasonable, as meeting conditions should generally be within the control of the implementing regional authorities. However, there are two specific scenarios in which this could be justified. First, when a national reform would directly strengthen the local impact of EU spending, and second, when a national reform generates clear cross-border benefits.

See Mr Darvas' presentation, which was based on a recent Bruegel Policy Brief.