Lecture | European Union Seminar
Economic and fiscal policy of Member States: is the EU tightening or loosening its grip?
- Freek Janmaat (European Commission Representation in the Netherlands)
- Date
- Friday 17 October 2025
- Time
- Serie
- European Union Seminar Series
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.48
Since 2020, a succession of crises has forced the EU member states to increase spending, and the EU has suspended its strict oversight rules. In 2024, a new economic governance framework came into force. The European Union wants a return to fiscal stability, but it also wants the Member States to invest in the future. Are the new rules limiting the Member States policy choices, or providing them with new options? In this talk, Freek Janmaat from the European Commission’s delegation to the Netherlands talks about the Commission’s coordination of national fiscal and economic policies through the European Semester, discusses the Dutch experience with the Recovery and Resilience Funds, and offers a first glimpse of the Commission’s proposal for the new EU multi-annual budget (2028-2035).
Freek Janmaat studied economics at the University of Amsterdam. He started his career at the Ministry of Agriculture, working on financial instruments and continued at the Ministry of Finance, advising on EU Affairs and multilateral development banks. In the European Commission, he has dealt extensively with the EU enlargement policy, including postings to different EU offices in the Western Balkans (Kosovo, Serbia and North Macedonia), before being appointed as the economic advisor at the European Commission Representation in the Hague.
