European Commission approves Greece’s 2025 budget plan

The European Commission has given a positive evaluation of Greece’s 2025 budget plan and medium-term fiscal strategy, according to the autumn package of the European Semester released on Tuesday. This marks the first assessment under the new economic governance framework.

During the presentation of the budget evaluations, Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni noted that 17 of the 20 eurozone member states submitted budget plans for 2025 (Austria, Belgium, and Spain did not). Among these, eight countries-Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia, and Slovakia-are deemed to comply with fiscal recommendations, as their net expenditure growth remains within the prescribed limits.

Conversely, the Commission found that the budget plans of seven countries, including Estonia, Germany, Finland, and Ireland, do not fully align with fiscal recommendations due to net expenditure increases that exceed the upper limits.