EIM Budgetary - November 2013

09 December 2013

Welding the euro area into a single economy stepped up a vital gear as the '2-pack' was launched and the Fourth European Semester got underway.

(Read the factsheet explaining the new budgetary rules and how the European Semester works here.)

The key change is that the Member States have given the Commission - on behalf of ‘Europe' - the task of scrutinising Members' draft budgetary plans even before they go to national Parliaments. We have spent the last decade trying to pretend that spill-overs to other Member States would not be significant. Now we know that in a tightly integrated currency union, that is not true. Realistically, it will take the next decade to work our way out of these problems. In contrast to pontifications by the UK media, the Finance Ministers of the countries actually involved engaged fully with the new process and welcomed it.

Full article

© Graham Bishop