Fiscal Councils: Threat or Opportunity for Democracy in the Post-Crisis Economic and Monetary Union?

Abstract

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Differentiated Fiscal Surveillance and the Democratic Promise of Independent Fiscal Institutions in the Economic and Monetary Union

“…For example, the European Commission (2017) considered the proximity to the Government of the Belgian and the German IFIs as problematic from the perspective of their independence. Similarly, the clash between the Spanish IFI and the Government, accused to filter the information transmitted by the competent administrations to the fiscal council (Fasone and Fromage 2017), shows the attempt of the Executive to curb the IFI’s activity following the “agent model”.…”

“…Furthermore, almost every critical opinion of the HCFP has been used by parliamentary minorities to challenge the validity of the annual Budget Act, of the Financial Act and of the Act to finance the social security system in front of the French Constitutional Council, claiming that a violation of the principle of budgetary sincerity had occurred. Although the IFI’s opinions have never formed the standard for the annulment of any of the contested provisions, they trigger a lively parliamentary and public debate and are expressly mentioned in the French constitutional case law (Fasone and Fromage 2017).…”