The future of EU fiscal integration

Abstract

Whether or not the EU should further its fiscal integration, and if so how, has been an active area of academic research and fertile ground for concrete policy proposals. How much more banking and capital market integration does the EU need? Is there room for an effective common unemployment insurance scheme, or other mechanisms, to share macroeconomic risk across member countries more efficiently? Should the EU ultimately aim for a fiscal union, whereby member countries would hand over some of their spending capacity to a central authority? The purpose of the panel is to take stock of current debates and look ahead to what should and could plausibly be achieved in terms of fiscal integration over the next decade.