EU Fiscal Framework and the Covid-19 Shock – The Annual Report of the European Fiscal Board

Note: 12:30 - 1:30 pm (CET, Central European Time)

The European Fiscal Board (EFB) recently released its fourth annual report, assessing the implementation of the EU fiscal framework in 2019. The report provides new evidence that the EU fiscal framework falls short of its aims and should be reformed without delay. The reforms become even more urgent against the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic. The Covid-19 crisis has exposed three long-standing gaps in EMU’s architecture:

(1) the lack of a genuine and permanent central fiscal capacity;

(2) adverse incentives to maintain or scale up growth-enhancing government expenditure;

(3) an intractable set of rules and benchmarks poorly tailored to country-specific needs and capacities

How the EU’s fiscal architecture might look like after the Covid-19 shock will be at the heart of our digital seminar jointly organized by ZEW Mannheim and EconPol Europe. The event will take place as a Webex webinar and is open to the public.