With the European Institutions back from summer recess, the EFN is back in business, ready for a full second lobby half of the year, rich in opportunities to raise the nurses’ voice at the highest levels of the EU Policy and Political arena.
Already at the top of the EFN political agenda is the European Semester 2025, the EU’s tool for coordinating and monitoring economic and social policies. Like every year, EFN analysed the European Semester Country Reports, and briefed the EFN Members on their national developments as analysed by the European Commission. This is key, as it provides the EFN Members with key information to lobby their national governments towards the continued implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (Access to Healthcare; Long-term Care, Wages,…) and the deployment of the Recovery and Resilience Funds for the benefit of the nursing workforce capacity building.
A comprehensive view on 2025 European Semester Country Reports can be viewed in the EFN Report on European Semester Country Reports Analysis 2016–2025. Importantly, for the first time, in this year’s Country Reports the European Commission and Eurostat are referring specifically to practising nurses, who are compliant with the education and qualification standards set in the Directive 2013/55/EU. This is key to enable the development of EU policies fit for purpose, taking into account the workforce reality frontline.
As a next step, the Council of the EU has now adopted its country-specific recommendations (CSRs) on the economic, social, employment, structural and budgetary policies of each member state. The implementation by the Member States of these recommendations will be crucial, and the EFN will therefore continue to work closely with the EFN Members and the European Commission to ensure that this is done swiftly and correctly.