The fiscal governance of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was the result of a political compromise. This led to an imbalanced and unsustainable framework, which contributed to the outbreak of the Eurozone debt crisis. During the crisis, European leaders embarked on a reform effort...

The chapter contributes to the analysis of the process of human rights and social cohesion erosion set in motion by austerity programmes in the Eurozone and to enquire about how this experience influences the current debate on the Eurozone governance reform in the context of COVID-19 crisis. The...

National fiscal frameworks (NFFs) represent a set of domestic arrangements to enhance the predictability and transparency of public finances. This chapter looks into a specific aspect of institutional convergence: the development of NFFs in the EU-11 countries following their EU accession. The...

Fiscal rules are institutional constraints on budget policymakers’ decision-making discretion aimed at fostering prudent fiscal policy, promoting overall fiscal discipline, and ensuring long-term fiscal sustainability. Since the European sovereign debt crisis, fiscal rules have been at the...

Despite the growing significance of fiscal rules, there is little research about tools and practices of enforcement at the local level. Addressing this knowledge gap, this chapter makes three contributions: first, we review the literature on regulatory enforcement in the ‘public-to-private’...