2014 Pre-Accession Economic Programmes of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey: the Commission’s overview and country assessments

In this Occasional Paper the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs publishes its overview and assessment of candidate countries’ 2014 Pre-accession Economic Programmes (PEPs). The annual submission and assessment of PEPs is part of the economic and fiscal surveillance procedure for countries seeking to join the EU. It aims to prepare candidate countries for participation in the EU’s multilateral surveillance and economic policy coordination procedures and plays a valuable role in helping candidate countries to develop their institutional and analytical capacities. The PEPs present a medium-term policy framework, including public finance objectives and structural reform priorities. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia submitted their PEPs for the period 2014-2016 at the end of January 2014. Turkey submitted its PEP four weeks late, at the end of February. All four programmes have been made public. Following its decision to put accession negotiations on hold and to reconsider its application for EU membership, Iceland is not covered in this year’s assessment, although talks on the country’s medium-term macroeconomic and budgetary outlook continue with the European Commission on a bilateral basis.