2023 European Semester: Housing in the Spring Package and its country recommendations

The focus of the recommendations varies across the nine Member States, according to the specific challenges identified in each country, however in most cases the Commission highlights both the need to increase affordability and availability of housing, as well as increasing energy efficiency of the residential stock.

Overall, the proposed recommendations emphasise the need to ensure prudent fiscal policy in 2023-2024, in particular by phasing out the less targeted energy support measures currently in force and reducing debt in the medium term. The recommendations also call on the Member States to steadily continue, or in several cases accelerate, the implementation of their Resilience and Recovery Plans in view of the deadline of 2026 and to proceed with the swift implementation of cohesion policy programmes, in close coordination with the RRPs. Here it is important to add that the Housing Europe network is increasingly reporting delays due to high construction materials prices and tight administrative deadlines. The proposals for the recommendations also outline the energy-related reforms and investment challenges, including the reskilling and upskilling of the labour force that Member States are asked to address under REPowerEU and their national energy and climate plans. 

The 'package' consists of

• an overall Communication
• proposals for Country-specific recommendations (CSRs) which provide guidance to the Member States on tackling key economic and social challenges that are only partially addressed or not addressed by the Recovery and Resilience Plans
• Country reports which provide a broader analysis of the situation in each country
• the revised Employment Guidelines
• a report on excessive deficit procedures
• in-depth reviews (IDRs) identifying and assessing the severity of macroeconomic imbalances (also worth mentioning, this year the in-depth reviews were supported by thematic notes which include one on 'Housing Market Developments' published earlier in April 2023[1])
• surveillance reports for post-programme countries.

More details are to be found in the document with relevant quotes from the country-specific recommendations which you can download below.