This includes national fiscal rules, independent fiscal institutions (IFIs), medium-term budgetary frameworks (MTBFs), fiscal statistics, the quality of public financial management and arrangements designed to support political priorities like, for example, the green transition and equal opportunities.
Why are national fiscal frameworks important?
Policy experiences show that strong fiscal frameworks and institutions can help contain the deficit bias in fiscal policy, can increase national ownership and stabilise economic expectations while also allowing budgeting to support specific priorities, for example, the green and digital transition and gender equality. Fiscal frameworks can support an efficient use of public resources by setting, for example, the conditions for efficient management of public investments and for monitoring the efficiency of public spending programmes. .
In 2005, within the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact, the European Council required EU Member States to strengthen their domestic fiscal governance through fiscal rules and institutions. National fiscal frameworks were further reinforced following the adoption of ground-breaking EU legal requirements such as the Budgetary Frameworks Directive, the Fiscal Compact and the regulation on Draft Budgetary Plans (Two-Pack).
Publications
European Commission, Review of the Suitability of the Council Directive 2011/85/EU on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States, European Commission Staff Working Document, SWD(2020)211 final, 5 February 2020.
Belu Manescu, C., Public Investment Management in the EU: Key Features and Practices, European Commission, European Economy Discussion Paper 154, December 2021.
Bova, E., Ercoli, R., Vanden Bosch, X., Spending Reviews: Some Insights from Practitioners, European Commission, European Economy Discussion Paper 135, December 2020.
European Commission, Quality of public finances: Spending reviews as a key tool to enhance public investment in the Euro Area. Technical note to the Eurogroup, August 2019.
European Commission, Quality of public finances: enhancing ownership in spending reviews. Technical background note by Commission staff, May 2018.
European Commission, Quality of public finances: spending reviews for smarter expenditure allocation in the euro area, key insights from the April-May 2017 Commission survey addressed to euro area Member States (Note for the attention of the Eurogroup), June 2017.
Vandierendonck, C., Public Spending Reviews: design, conduct, implementation, European Commission, European Economy Discussion Paper 525, July 2014.
Canova, F., E. Pappa, Costly Disasters & the Role of Fiscal Policy: Evidence from US States, European Commission, European Economy Discussion Paper 151, November 2021.
Radu, D., Disaster Risk Financing: Main Concepts and Evidence from EU Member States, European Commission, European Economy Discussion Paper 150, October 2021.
European Commission, Closing the climate protection gap – Scoping policy and data gaps, European Commission Staff Working Document, May 2021.
European Commission, Report on Public Finances in EMU 2020, European Commission, European Economy Institutional Paper 147, February 2021 [(part II.4)].
European Commission, Report on Public Finances in EMU 2019, European Commission, European Economy Institutional Paper 133, 24 July 2020.
Bova, E., J. Jerosch Herold da Costa Reis, Gender Budgeting Practices: Concepts and Evidence, European Commission, European Economy Discussion Paper 165, June 2022.