EconPol Forum | No. 4 (2023)

Summary:

Europe is facing a whole new set of challenges: The cost of living is rising, war is on our doorstep, and an environmental turnaround is needed. How should the EU framework for economic governance change to make Europe stronger, more sustainable and more resilient? The European Commission has recently developed guidelines for a reformed economic governance framework. In March 2023, the European Council endorsed these guidelines. They aim at strengthening national ownership and facilitating the enforcement of projects. At the same time, they are intended to enable strategic investments and set a framework to reduce the high level of public debt. However, such economic policy coordination efforts at the EU level and the individual governance reform proposals open new debates. To what extent do they correspond to the real needs and interests of the EU? And do they take into account country-specific economic, structural and social problems of the member states?

The articles in this issue of EconPol Forum highlight important aspects of a reform of the EU’s economic governance that will help to make the public finance and the economy of the EU and its member states healthier and more resilient in the future. They critically examine the EU’s latest reform proposal and shed light on ways to make policies and measures more effective.

Table of Contents:

• Policy Debate of the Hour
  • Introduction to the Issue on Reform of the EU Economic Governance – Why and How? | Chang Woon Nam
  • The Reform of the EU Economic Governance Framework, Market Discipline and the Role of the ECB | Clemens Fuest
  • Fiscal Sustainability: Interest Rates, Growth and Debt-based Policy Rules | George Economides & Apostolis Philippopoulos
  • The EU’s Increasingly Complex Finances: A Ticking Bomb? | Iain Begg
  • EU Fiscal Rules: Do They Destabilize and Inhibit Economic Activity? | George Kopits
  • Solving the Enforcement Dilemma of the EU Fiscal Rules | Paul Dermine & Martin Larch
  • Rewarding Compliance with Fiscal Rules - A Proposal for Reform of the Stability and Growth Pact | Wolfram F. Richter
  • Making the Eurozone Function Again: A Solution for the European Debt Problem Is Hard But Not Impossible | Vesa Kanniainen
  • Making EU Economic Governance Fit for Purpose: Investing in the Future and Reforming the Fiscal Rules While Decentralizing and Democratizing | Vivien A. Schmidt
  • Public Investments: Is There a Golden Rule Separating “Good” from “Bad” Debt? | Torben M. Andersen
  • Reforming EU Fiscal Governance: A Golden Rule for Public Investments? | Sebastian Blesse, Florian Dorn & Max Lay
  • EU Economic Governance and the Climate Crisis | Anne-Laure Delatte
• Economic Policy and its Impact
  • Taxation and Innovation: How R&D Tax Credit Schemes Foster Innovation in the Private Sector | Oliver Falck, Anna Kerkhof & Christian Pfaffl
• Institutions Across the World
  • Income and Tax Burden of the Middle Class in Europe | Mathias Dolls, Florian Dorn, David Gstrein & Max Lay
• Big Data-Based Economic Insights
  • Immigrant Narratives in German Newspapers | Kai Gehring, Joop Adema & Panu Poutvaara

• Primary Source

• Alternative Source