Recommendation for a Council Recommendation on the 2015 National Reform Programme of Sweden and delivering a Council opinion on the 2015 Convergence Programme of Sweden

On 8 July 2014, the Council adopted a Recommendation on Sweden’s National Reform Programme for 2014 and delivered its opinion on Sweden’s updated Convergence Programme for 2014.

On 28 November 2014, the Commission adopted the Annual Growth Survey, marking the start of the 2015 European Semester of economic policy coordination. On the same day, on the basis of Regulation (EU) No 1176/2011, the Commission adopted the Alert Mechanism Report, in which it identified Sweden as one of the Member States for which an in-depth review would be carried out.

On 26 February 2015, the Commission published its 2015 country report for Sweden. This assessed Sweden’s progress in addressing the country-specific recommendations adopted on 8 July 2014. The country report also includes the results of the in-depth review.

The Commission’s analysis leads it to conclude that Sweden is experiencing macroeconomic imbalances which require policy action and monitoring. In particular, household debt remains at very high levels and continues to expand as a result of increasing house prices, persistently low interest rates and strong tax incentives and housing supply constraints. Macroeconomic developments linked to private debt continue to merit attention.

On 23 April 2015, Sweden submitted its 2015 National Reform Programme and on 24 April 2015 its 2015 Convergence Programme. To take account of their interlinkages, the two programmes have been assessed at the same time.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)276: Follow the progress of this recommendation through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:276:FIN

ESO: Background Information: Website: Stability and covergence programmes submitted by member states 2006- http://www.europeansources.info/record/website-stability-and-convergence-programmes-1998/

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