Press Release: Quarterly Report on the Euro Area: The European Semester helps to tackle the ongoing debt crisis

Against the background of the recently completed first European Semester, the latest edition of the Quarterly Report on the Euro Area presents an assessment of the euro-area Member States' Stability Programmes, takes a look at the quality of national fiscal frameworks, and explains the economic adjustment programmes devised for Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

This edition examines also the potential risks to the euro area's ongoing recovery posed by higher oil prices and the on-going repair of private sector balance sheets. On the fiscal front, the euro-area Member States' Stability Programmes show significant fiscal consolidation that is frontloaded and mainly based on expenditure. Although consolidation is underway and the debt path is projected to start declining by 2012, further challenges lie ahead. To achieve the 2012 public balance targets set out in the Stability Programmes, euro-area Member States still have to introduce into law additional policy measures. Beyond 2014, further measures may be needed to address the costs of population ageing.