Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T18:07:24.470Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The ‘Muting’ of the Stability and Growth Pact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2021

Abstract

This article proposes the “muting” of the SGP, the framework of rules that the EU has implemented since the coming into being of the European Monetary Union in the fiscal domain. It is argued herein that the system is far from being credible, from the perspective of the law-as-credibility paradigm. Therefore, the legal condition of the SGP should be “muted”. Three proposals to legally mute the SGP are examined in this article. The Open Method of Coordination is used as a useful model that could be followed from now on in the EU fiscal field. The gains in terms of legal credibility would argue in favour of the muting of the SGP and its correlative conversion into an OMC-like system.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Centre for European Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‘Because I am silent and I am holy …’ Address to the Gods of the Underworld The Book of the Dead (Budge, 1898: 199)

*

Jean Monnet Chair ‘ad personam’ of Law of European Economic Governance and Associate Professor of Administrative Law, University Carlos III of Madrid.

References

1 O Blanchard, A Leandro, and J Zettelmeyer, ‘What to Do about the European Union's Fiscal Rules’, Peterson Institute for International Economics (February 2021).

2 COM(2015) 12 final, Making the Best Use of Flexibility within the Existing Rules of the Stability and Growth Pact.

3 COM(2020) 123 final, Communication from the Commission to the Council on the Activation of the General Escape Clause of the Stability and Growth Pact. The activation of the escape clause was granted by the ECOFIN on 23 March 2020. Council of the EU Press Release, Statement of EU Ministers of Finance on the Stability and Growth Pact in Light of the COVID-19 Crisis (23 March 2020), https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2020/03/23/statement-of-eu-ministers-of-finance-on-the-stability-and-growth-pact-in-light-of-the-covid-19-crisis.

4 COM(2021) 105 final, Communication from the Commission to the Council: One Year since the Outbreak of COVID-19: Fiscal Policy Response.

5 Truger, A, ‘Reforming EU Fiscal Rules: More Leeway, Investment Orientation and Democratic Coordination’ (2020) 55(5) Inter Economics 277Google Scholar.

6 Costantini, O, ‘The Eurozone as a Trap and a Hostage: Obstacles and Prospects of the Debate on European Fiscal Rules’ (2020) 55(5) Inter Economics 284Google Scholar.

7 M Dani, J Mendes, A Menendez, M Wilkinson, H Schepel, and E Chiti, ‘At the End of the Law: A Moment of Truth for the Eurozone and the EU’ (VerfBlog, 15 May 2020).

8 O Blanchard, A Leandro, and J Zettelmeyer, ‘Redesigning EU Fiscal Rules: From Rules to Standards’, Peterson Institute for International Economics (February 2021).

9 Ibid.

10 Blanchard, Leandro, and Zettelmeyer, note 1 above.

11 Kaplow, L, ‘Rules Versus Standards: An Economic Analysis’ (1992) 42(3) Duke Law Journal, 557, p 570CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 H Schepel, The Constitution of Private Governance: Product Standards in the Regulation of Integrating Markets (Hart, 2005), p 4.

13 Sunstein, C R, ‘Problems with Rules’ (1995) 83(4) California Law Review 953, 965CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Bianchi, C and Menegatti, M, ‘Rules Versus Discretion In Fiscal Policy’ (2012) 80(5) The Manchester School 603CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 See, for example, Rule 9.2.2. f) of Norm ISO 9001:2015 (E): ‘The organization shall retain documented information as evidence of the implementation of the audit programme and the audit results’. See this ISO Norm in this link: http://wqc-portal.pwa.co.th/attachment/topic/88/ISO_9001_2015.pdf.

16 A Estella, Legal Foundations of EU Economic Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2018), p 94.

17 A Estella, The EU Principle of Subsidiarity and Its Critique (Oxford University Press, 2002).

18 Estella, A, ‘Law as Credibility: An Outline’ (2015) 1 Il Foro Napoletano 40Google Scholar.

19 Müller, J, ‘The EU as a Militant Democracy, or: Are There Limits to Constitutional Mutations within EU Member States’ (2014) 165 Revista de estudios políticos 141Google Scholar.

20 Rose, A, ‘Checking Out: Exits from Currency Unions’ (2007) 19 Journal of Financial Transformation 121Google Scholar.

21 Estella, ‘Law as Credibility’, note 18 above.

22 Desomer, M and Lenaerts, K, ‘New Models of Constitution-Making in Europe: The Quest for Legitimacy’ (2002) 39(6) Common Market Law Review 1217CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Grauwe, P De and Yuemei, J, ‘Mispricing of Sovereign Risk and Multiple Equilibria in the Eurozone’ (2013) 34 Journal of International Money and Finance 15Google Scholar.

24 Ibañez, A Gil, ‘The “Standard” Administrative Procedure for Supervising and Enforcing EC Law: EC Treaty Articles 226 and 228’ (2004) 68 Law and Contemporary problems 135Google Scholar.

25 See European Commission ‘Vade Mecum on the Stability and Growth Pact’ (European Economy, 2019) Institutional Paper 101.

26 K A Armstrong, ‘The Open Method of Co-ordination – Obstinate or Obsolete?’ (University of Cambridge, 2016) Faculty of Law Research Paper No 45/2016.

27 Estella, Legal Foundations of EU Economic Governance, note 16 above, p 255.

29 Becker, W, Norlén, H, Dijkstra, L, and Athanasoglou, S, ‘Wrapping Up the Europe 2020 Strategy: A Multidimensional Indicator Analysis’ (2020) 8 Environmental and Sustainability IndicatorsCrossRefGoogle Scholar, Article 100075.

30 Fedajev, A, Stanujkic, D, Karabašević, D, Brauers, W K M, and Zavadskas, E K, ‘Assessment of Progress Towards “Europe 2020” Strategy Targets by Using the MULTIMOORA Method and the Shannon Entropy Index’ (2020) 244 Journal of Cleaner ProductionCrossRefGoogle Scholar, Article 118895.

31 Rogge, N, ‘EU Countries’ Progress Towards “Europe 2020 Strategy Targets”’ (2019) 41 Journal of Policy Modelling 255CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Papageorgiou, Ch, Anastasiou, A, and Liargovas, P, ‘Trends in the “Europe 2020” Strategy: An Overview’ (2021) 23(1) The Journal of Applied Business and EconomicsGoogle Scholar.

33 S Borrás and C Radaelli, ‘Recalibrating the Open Method of Coordination: Towards Diverse and More Effective Usages’ (Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier, 2010) SIEPS Report No 7.

34 Koehler, S and König, T, ‘Fiscal Governance in the Eurozone: How Effectively Does the Stability and Growth Pact Limit Governmental Debt in the Euro Countries?’ (2014) 3(2) Political Science Research and Methods 329Google Scholar.

35 Council of the EU Press Release, note 3 above.

36 See E Jones, ‘When and How to Deactivate the SGP General Escape Clause?’ (Economic Governance Support Unit, Directorate General for Internal Policies, European Parliament, 2020) PE 651.378; K Gern, S Kooths, and U Stolzenburg, ‘When and How to Deactivate the SGP General Escape Clause? Fiscal Surveillance after the Break’ (Economic Governance Support Unit, Directorate General for Internal Policies, European Parliament, 2020) PE 651.376.

37 European Fiscal Board, ‘Annual Report 2020’.

38 Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (aka ‘Fiscal Compact’) of 2 March 2012, https://www.fdfa.be/sites/default/files/atoms/files/981_Ondertekende%20akte%20in%20het%20Engels.pdf.

39 T Mann, Death in Venice (English translation, 1912; Harper Perennial, 2005).

40 Henning, R and Kessler, M, ‘Fiscal Federalism: US history for Architects of Europe's Fiscal union’ (2012) Bruegel Essay and Lecture Series 1Google Scholar.