As fears of a recession make fiscal policy ever more relevant, we need to discuss reforming economic governance rules. Many of the Commission’s good intentions fail to achieve what they set out, leaving us with a fiscal architecture that is pro-cyclical and unreliable, hindering the green and digital transitions and economic growth. After three years […]
Next Economy
The EU’s current reform of economic policy coordination rules risks worsening rather than improving its democratic deficit. However, the proposals could still be democratised, and this would serve the EU both politically and economically. When the French government raises the retirement age or when a new anti-child poverty allowance is cut down in Germany, EU […]
The economic governance reform is very much a political issue. The EU Commission has brought forward a package for reforming the EU fiscal rules. Behind its technicalities, which may be difficult to navigate for the uninitiated, lie choices that are political by nature: what societal objectives to prioritise? Who takes the decisions? The proposals made […]
Today’s reality can increasingly be described as a polycrisis: the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent disruption of global supply chains; the war in Ukraine and the resulting fossil fuel price crisis; rising inequalities between and within countries, exacerbated by inflation; and, of course, climate change. We need to transform our economy to make it resilient […]
After more than 15 years of crises – from the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty, over the financial crisis, to Brexit – Brussels no longer seems a place of opportunities and solidarity, but it is seen as synonymous with austerity, inequality and growing divergences, in the face of divisive sovereignty. However, the 2019 European elections […]
After several postponements, the European Commission put forward an orientation for a reform of the EU economic governance framework on 9 November. Now, hopefully, a real political discussion can take off. Since the global financial crisis in 2007, the sovereign debt crisis, the migration and climate emergency and the emergence of the EU Green Deal, […]