The Center aims to address urgent issues on the future of the European fiscal union. Up until now, any fiscal alliance at the European Union has been rejected by the member states despite their strong economic connection. Within the Eurozone, economists have strongly criticised that the European Union oversees the European monetary policy without having any substantial influence on the member states’ economic policy decisions. Within the Eurozone the traditional financial market mechanism does not function as everyone expected the European Union to support member states experiencing financial difficulties.

The consequences of the division of monetary and economic policies could not only be witnessed throughout the European debt crisis, but also in the aftermath of the first Covid-19 wave. Member states with a high national debt ratio, such as Spain, Italy and France were unable to finance their national aid programs with low-interest loans from financial markets, and thus the European Union entered into debt to ensure that all member states will cope with the economic consequences of national lockdowns and other anti-Covid measures.

The Center for European Fiscal Law and Policy addresses how a group of strongly economically linked member states can further exist without any form of fiscal alliance, which steps could be taken to move closer to a fiscal union and which consequences the existence of a European fiscal union has on the member states but also the internal market.

Head of the Center: Caroline Heber