Reform of the EU Economic Governance – Why and How?

I have just published a policy brief for the German Research Network and think-tank think-tank CESifo on how to reform EU Economic Governance for the better.

In the policy brief, entitled Making EU Economic Governance Fit for Purpose: Investing in the Future and Reforming the Fiscal Rules While Decentralizing and Democratizing (Details | PDF Download), I argue that the EU needs a permanent debt facility to address its many challenges; that the EU’s fiscal rules need to be fit for purpose, meaning that rather than primarily targeting debt-reduction they need to be focused on investment; that Germany is the elephant in the room when it comes to obstacles to fit-for-purpose fiscal rules and EU level investment capacity; that the European Semester should be decentralized and democratized at the national level to ensure legitimacy; and that the dangers of populist extremism can be addressed only by developing common solutions address the EU’s many existential challenges through EU solidarity, including EU level debt and fit-for-purpose fiscal rules.

The brief appeared in EconPol Forum 2023-4 (July): https://www.cesifo.org/en/publications/econpol-forum.