Fiscal policy

German measures to incentivize workers to retire later come as governments across Europe are turning to pension reforms to address worker shortages and ease the burden on their pension systems.

Here is what other European countries are doing.

France

It is highly likely that the government will need to continue subsidizing electricity bills in September as natural gas prices rose toward the end of August, Environment and Energy Minister Theodoros Skylakakis said in a radio interview Friday.

One reason the negotiations over a European Union contribution to the new housing loan subsidy program are still going on is that the EU wants the houses that will be eligible for loan subsidies to be upgraded to become more energy efficient. 

As a rule, 38% of the funding provided by the Recovery and Resilience Fund should go to activities benefiting the environment. 

Beijing on Wednesday launched a probe into EU subsidies of some dairy products imported into China, the day after the bloc said it planned to impose five-year import duties of up to 36 percent on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).

The Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, in collaboration with all relevant Ministries, is activating the framework of state aid to support the areas of Attica affected by the August 11, 2024, fire. Some of these measures also apply to other areas impacted by fires during the summer of 2024.

The vast majority of pensioners will get an extra €15-30 from their pensions alone on January 1. However, thousands will also get an extra subsidy, ranging from €100-€200, especially those whose pensions do not exceed €700 per month.

The European Central Bank's cautious monetary policy will be partly responsible for the eurozone's weak economic growth over the next year or two, UK-based research firm Capital Economics maintains.

The firm forecasts growth in the eurozone at 0.7% in 2024, 1.2% in 2025 and 1.1% in 2026.

State spending on research and development declined in Greece in 2023, bucking European trends, Eurostat data gleaned from the member-states' budgets and released Tuesday show.

When one considers spending per capita, Greece ranks quite low among EU states, although it outranks Lithuania, Poland, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.

The new medium-term fiscal structural plan being negotiated with the European Commission will set strict spending increase limits from 2025-2028.

The short- and long-term car rental sector is estimated to directly contribute 1.3 billion euros to Greece's gross domestic product, based on 2022 data.