Productivity Profile of the European Commission

 

 The Organisation

 

The European Commission supports economic and fiscal policy coordination towards enhanced productivity and competitiveness among its members. The Commission encourages Member States to establish National Productivity Boards, which are independent institutions that help to analyse economic productivity, competitiveness-related developments, and challenges at the national level. 

Through the establishment of consultation mechanisms with stakeholders, the National Boards carry out high-quality statistical analysis, make their results available to the public, encourage reform-making at the national level, and develop detailed annual reports used by governments and the Commission to conduct policy monitoring processes.

According to the Recommendation on the establishment of National Productivity Boards, issued by the Council of the European Union in September 2016, the Commission should facilitate the exchange of views and information across Member States’ National Productivity Boards, and open a channel of communication between them and the Economic Policy Committee, an advisory body to the Council and the Commission, comprising experts on productivity at the national level. The Commission also provides technical assistance to design effective productivity-enhancing policies through the Structural Reform Support, helping EU countries to implement reforms as part of their efforts to foster job creation and sustainable growth.

  

Selected Publications

Follow-up of the progress report on the implementation of the Council Recommendation of 20 September 2016 on the establishment of National Productivity Boards (2021);

Smart Specialisation Strategies and Regional Productivity (2021);

Structural change and productivity growth in the European Union: Past, present and future (2021);

Business, innovation and productivity (2020);

Productivity in Europe: Trends and drivers in a service-based economy (2020);

Productivity Drivers: Empirical Evidence on the Role of Digital Capital, FDI and Integration (2020);

Artificial Intelligence – impact on total factor productivity, e-commerce and fintech (2020);

Skills mismatch & productivity in the EU (2019);

Institutions & the Productivity Challenge for European Regions (2019);

Progress Report on the Council Recommendation on the establishment of National Productivity Boards (2019).

  

 Data

 

Click here to access our Compare-Your-Country tool and explore productivity data from the GFP member countries. 

Eurostat Productivity Indicators (multiple) 

  

 Latest OECD Recommendations

 

• Swiftly implement national recovery and resilience plans to deliver structural reforms and investments based on sound cost-benefit analysis.
  
  
• Invest in European interconnections, such as in electricity grids and smart recharging infrastructure for transport electrification.
  
  
• Remove barriers to private investment for the climate and digital transitions by simplifying licensing procedures.
  
  
• Promote cross-country collaboration in R&D and in innovative industrial projects.
  
  
• Devote more cohesion funds in poorer regions to R&D projects.
  
  
• Make more regions benefit from agglomeration economies, through reduced travel time to large cities, better ability to telework, and closer integration of second-tier cities with surrounding territories.
  
  
• Adjust competition rules and enforcement to new challenges: closely review and prevent “killer acquisitions”; develop new instruments to address distortive foreign subsidies; increase competition in digital markets.