EU set to recommend budget measures

Ireland is half way through the European ‘semester’ budget-setting process, with the European Commission set to report in early June with country specific recommendations, according to Europe Minister Paschal Donohoe.

This is the first full year of the new semester programme after the country emerged from the EU-IMF bailout last December.

The process is one of the new initiatives introduced in the wake of the debt crisis. Before the economic collapse in 2008, national parliaments had full responsibility for setting annual budgets.