Europäischer Rechnungshof - European Court of Auditors
Press invitation: Did COVID recovery funds improve EU countries’ labour markets?
Press invitation
for 26 March 2025
Did COVID recovery funds improve EU countries’ labour markets?
- Online press briefing: Wednesday 26 March at 10.00 a.m. CET
- Publication: Same day at 5.00 p.m. CET
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) would like to invite you to an online press briefing on its upcoming special report on the labour market reforms in EU countries that were funded by the €650 billion Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) – at 10.00 a.m. CET on Wednesday 26 March 2025.
The purpose of the briefing is to provide a detailed overview of the audit, and to put its conclusions and recommendations into context. There will also be an opportunity to discuss the report with ECA Member Ivana Maletić and representatives of the audit team.
RSVP: Please let us know by 1.00 p.m. on Tuesday 25 March whether you intend to take part in the online briefing; we will then send you detailed instructions on how to connect. To allow for an informed discussion, confirmed participants can receive an embargoed copy of the report and press release upon request ahead of the briefing. Both documents will be published on the ECA website at 5.00 p.m. on Wednesday 26 March.
Background
The RRF is the centrepiece of Next Generation EU, which aimed to help EU countries to mitigate the economic fallout from the pandemic and build resilient economies. By means of this temporary instrument, the EU established a link for the first time between funding for member states and economic and social reforms, including in labour and employment policies. These reforms were supposed to help the member states to address the challenges that the Council had previously brought to their attention by means of country-specific recommendations (CSRs), but which those same member states were yet to tackle.
This is the first ECA audit of the effectiveness of RRF reforms. The auditors examined whether the labour market reforms in place effectively addressed the member states’ labour market challenges that had been identified during the European Semester (the EU’s yearly coordination of member states’ economic policies) and set out in the CSRs. For a sample of four member states (Belgium, Greece, Spain and Portugal), they also assessed whether the completed reforms had achieved results and helped to implement the CSRs.
Contact:
ECA press office: press@eca.europa.eu Damijan Fišer: M: (+352) 621 552 224