The European Semester is the EU's annual cycle of economic policy guidance and surveillance. Each year, the Commission undertakes detailed analyses of EU Member States' plans of fiscal, macroeconomic, and structural reforms and provides them with Country-specific Recommendations for the next 12-18 months. These recommendations contribute to the Europe 2020 strategy, the EU's long-term strategy for jobs and growth, which is implemented and monitored in the context of the European Semester. Member States align their structural reforms, fiscal, and measures to prevent macroeconomic imbalances with the objectives and rules agreed at the EU level. The Fiscal Policy Analysis team of the JRC contributes to the European Semester by conducting In-depth analyses of tax reforms.
The in-depth analyses make use of JRC fiscal policy modelling tools, in particular the EUROMOD model and its extensions covering specific thematic areas. In addition the JRC Fiscal Policy Analysis team use the CORTAX model to analyse policies affecting corporate taxation.
A EUROMOD-JRC web interface has been developed at the Joint Research Centre in Seville in order to provide simplified access to EUROMOD itself. This tool can only be accessed by experts that are inside the Commission network.
The Fiscal Policy Analysis team also provides research support to the evaluation of the relevant fiscal measures included in the macroeconomic adjustment programmes, by making use of microsimulation techniques.
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