What role for the European semester in the recovery plan?

Accessing funds of the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) depends on detailed national Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) being agreed upon, and projects meeting implementation milestones. The RRPs will be embedded in the European Semester, the EU's framework for economic policy coordination. This paper suggests that there are risks to the implementation of the RRPs, and/or to an objective evaluation of their progress. While the Treaty specifies that the execution of economic policy coordination shall be done by the Member States within the Council, the involvement of the European Parliament would potentially increase transparency and accountability for national policy makers (as well as the Commission and Council), which could improve project delivery and thus benefit the recovery. This document was provided by the Economic Governance Support Unit and Policy Department A at the request of the ECON Committee.