Other document
Budgetary discipline and macroeconomic policy in the European Union
Are the stability pact and the Lisbon strategy compatible? Seminar organised in Paris on 8 March 2003 by Notre Europe.
REPORT BY JEAN-LOUIS ARNAUD
FOREWORD BY JACQUES DELORS
At the beginning of the year, many reasons led Notre Europe to consider that, within a constitutional framework, the time had come to reflect on the coherence between the Lisbon strategy signed by the heads of state and government in 2000 and the Stability and Growth Pact that aims at ensuring the stability of the European currency in the short run. This intuition led us to organise last March a seminar of experts on the issue.
The objective was to contribute to a debate about economic governance within an enlarged Europe that, to say the least, was developing slowly, a fact confirmed by the lack of progress made by the Convention on this matter. The most recent facts have confirmed our intuition: The rules of the stability and growth pact were deeply called into question by those that had imposed them, the same that still mention the insufficiency of economic growth, which at least has the merit of showing the hypocrisy of the “stability and growth pact”. Indeed, economic growth is the objective of the Lisbon strategy which, as I realised at the recent Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation, is starting to suffer from a lack of credibility due to the absence of mechanisms to put it in practice.
Therefore, between the stability and growth pact rules, that some qualified as “stupid”, and the demand for growth (which implies employment) that benefits from an indisputable legitimacy in the public opinion, is a new “democratic deficit” that would be very dangerous to play. If this risk was perceived during the seminar, it should be recognised that the possible answers remained rather vague, such as the assessment of the quality of spending or the issue of having the necessary financial resources to put in place the Lisbon strategy.
The clearest conclusion, as invoked by Robert Goebbels, is that we are missing the necessary instruments to lead us, in a credible way, to the prosperity to which citizens aspire. Like him, I think we do not need to reinvent something that works but to finish what was left unfinished: a pact of co-ordination of economic policies and a programme to ensure the financing of trans-European networks which was proposed ten years ago by the White Paper for Growth, Competitiveness and Employment that an enlarged Union will need now even more than before. We have, in a word, to get away from a certain “single thought” to renew with imagination.
SUR LE MÊME THÈME
ON THE SAME THEME
PUBLICATIONS
How stringent would the new Stability and Growth Pact be? And for who?

The tools for protecting the EU budget from breaches of the rule of law

Macro-economic impact of the EU Recovery Funds

THE NEXT REVISION OF THE FINANCIAL REGULATION AND THE EU BUDGET GALAXY

From words to action

The budgetary stick to the rescue of the rule of law?

A historic agreement, to be improved and implemented

An ambitious recovery budget, tough negotiations ahead

The EU budget and COVID: We need a “plan B”

Covid-19 and the Mobilisation of Public Development Banks in the EU

Tackling the coronavirus crisis:
how can the EU budget help?

Fiscal policy-making in the time of Coronavirus

Coronavirus
krach financier et krach politique

Corona: A European Safety Net for the Fiscal Response

The Member State compartment of the InvestEU Fund:
how does it work? Will it fly?

MFF negotiations: towards the end?

‘No deal’ Brexit and the EU budget:
beware the risk for EU unity

An EU budget in support of the next commission’s agenda

Innovation for the energy & climate transition

European Budget 2021-2027: how to escape from “business as usual”?

Budget européen, retrouver le sens du long terme

Negotiating the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework in an electoral year: which consequences?

InvestEU Fund: A Rebranded Juncker Fund?

Making better use of public funding: The role of national promotional banks and institutions in the next EU budget

Reinforcing the EU Budget with a fossil-fuel contribution

The Next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and its Flexibility

EU budget: What’s the Cost of Europe?

Understanding the “Brexit Divorce Bill”

The possible impact of Brexit on the EU budget and CAP funding

The EU as a 3-D Power: Should Europe Spend More on Diplomacy, Development and Defence?

Are the spending priorities of euro-area countries converging?

The future of the European budget: What does the Commission’s White Paper mean for EU finances?

Making the Energy Transition a European Success

Extending Erasmus: a new impetus for youth mobility in Europe

Brexit and the EU budget: threat or opportunity?

Public Sector Reform: How the EU budget is used to encourage it

Investment in Europe: Making the best of the Juncker Plan

Is there an alternative to the European economic policy? The European Parliament response

Federalising the Eurozone: Towards a true European budget?

What would a European finance minister do? A proposal

A new road map for the EU

The adjustements to the EU budget

National budgets and European surveillance: Shedding light on the debate

Reforming Europe’s governance

Adjustment programmes in the euro area: mission accomplished?

Who calls the shots in the euro area? “Brussels” or the member states?

Non-Community European spending

EU budget: the path to an agreement

The role and place of Parliaments in a genuine Economic and Monetary Union

EU and growth: three pacts rather than one

European budget 2014-2020: seven years of bad luck?

Is the stupidity pact still stable?

How to maintain hard capabilities in times of budget cuts?

The EU budget: taking a second look

Britain and Europe – The last rites?

Spending better together: analyses and recommendations

Reforming the EU budget in times of crisis

Eurozone budget: 3 functions, 3 instruments

Which Institutions for the Euro Area?

“Fiscal Compact”, sovereignty and austerity

What European budget for post-crisis Europe?

European Development Aid: How to be more effective without spending more?

European guarantees to get out of the crisis?

The European “Fiscal Compact”: a goal or a starting point?

EU budget negotiations: need for a healthy and constructive debate

The “Fiscal Compact”: legal uncertainty and political ambiguity

The ‘TSCG’: much ado about nothing?

A two-pronged defence of the Euro

The Common Strategic Framework: adding value to rural development?

Debt crisis, sovereignty crisis

The CAP in the EU Budget: New Objectives and Financial Principles for the Agricultural Budget after 2013

Rethinking EU finances in times of crisis

Thinking the EU budget and public spending in Europe: the need to use an aggregate approach

Defence spending in Europe: Can we do better without spending more?

The “added value” in EU budgetary debates: one concept, four meanings

Report Haug, Lamassoure, Verhofstadt: Europe for Growth : Towards a radical change in financing the EU

Options for an EU Financing Reform

Comments on the CEPS policy brief “A new Budget for the European Union?”

Comments on the policy paper published by CEPS “A New Budget for the European Union?”

Comments to the policy paper “A New Budget for the European Union?” by A. Iozzo, S. Micossi and MT. Salvemini

Comments to the CEPS policy brief “A new Budget for the European Union?”

Comments to the CEPS policy brief “A new Budget for the European Union?”

Réaction à la note publiée par le CEPS “A New Budget for the European Union?”

Comments to the paper published by CEPS “A New Budget for the European Union?”

EU Budget Review: Addressing the Thorny Issues

The case for a European tax: Benefits, practical aspects and options for endowing the EU with a veritable own resource

The EU budget: What for?

Funding the EU Budget with a Genuine Own Resource: The case for a European Tax

Reform of EU policies in the perspective of enlargement and their financial implications

European budget : the poisonous budget rebate debate

The Lisbon strategy and the open method of co-ordination: 12 recommendations for an effective multi-level strategy

Rule of law conditionality

MÉDIAS
MEDIAS
Peut-on parvenir à une souveraineté économique européenne?

FRANCE : L’UNION DES INDUSTRIES UTILISATRICES D’ÉNERGIE (UNIDEN) APPELLE AU RATIONNEMENT

Le nouveau «plan de résilience» teste la solidarité européenne
