COLLEGE MEETING: The European Fiscal Board publishes its assessment of EU fiscal rules

The European Fiscal Board has today published an assessment of the EU fiscal rules with a particular focus on the six and two-pack legislation. Mr Niels Thygesen, Chair of the European Fiscal Board, presented the report at today’s College meeting. As part of its work on deepening Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union, the Commission has acknowledged the need to review the current EU fiscal rules, including in the Five Presidents’ Report in 2015 and the roadmap for deepening Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union presented in 2017. In this context, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker invited the European Fiscal Board in January to carry out the assessment that has been published today. The assessment includes a backward-looking part reviewing the effectiveness of the current set of EU fiscal rules and a forward-looking part with ideas on how the rules could evolve. The European Fiscal Board is an independent body mandated to advise the European Commission on the overall direction of fiscal policy of the euro area and to evaluate the implementation of the EU fiscal governance framework.