Annual Report of the European Commission: How did Austria do?

OrganizationsInternational Organizations ♦ Published: March 11, 2018; 16:00 ♦ (Vindobona)

The European Commission presented its annual reports on 27 EU member states. How did Austria do? Well, it kinda ended up with a black eye. The report took a pop at Vienna for a number of structural shortcomings, including tax burden on labour, pension and healthcare expenditures, house prices, restrictive regulation in the services markets, stagnating productivity and and not enough action on spreading digital technologies. That isn’t a particularly good report card for the previous coalition government of ÖVP und SPÖ. Let’s see if the new coalition government of ÖVP und FPÖ can make the grade the next time around.

Annual Report of the European Commission: How did Austria do? / Picture: © European Union and Austrian crossed flags by Vindobona

In the survey, the Commission calls on EU Member States to implement reforms to make the European economy more productive, resilient and inclusive.

In so doing, Member States should focus their efforts on the three elements of the virtuous triangle of economic policy - boosting investment, pursuing structural reforms and ensuring responsible fiscal policies.

The…