New modes of European macroeconomic governance

Abstract

New forms of European macroeconomic governance The European Union has reinvented macroeconomic governance over the past fifteen years – by rewriting the rules for fiscal policy coordination, creating new institutions for macroeconomic and financial stabilization, and, through Next Generation EU, developing a new pattern for promoting country-specific reforms by tying them to common European projects backed by common European resources. The result is an unprecedented form of cross-border macroeconomic policy coordination that does not look like a ‘federation’ but is certainly much more than exists in any international organization. The purpose of this panel is to take stock of the current arrangement – which is based to a large extent on instruments that are either officially ‘temporary’ or that have yet to be tested – and to explore what it tells us about the nature and direction of European integration.