The update of the Convergence Programme for 2011-2015 presented here has for the second time in a row been prepared in accordance with a new timetable, the European Semester, and for the first time under the regime of new European legislative measures, the so-called "six-pack", fundamentally changing economic-political coordination. The objective of the European Semester is to deepen and strengthen multilateral budget surveillance as well as fiscal and structural policy coordination within the EU. National fiscal policies are therefore coordinated in the preparation phase of public budgets and their medium?term outlooks.