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The book tackles a key issue for the European Union: Fiscal Federalism. It evaluates the applicability of this theoretical perspective for the EU. Conversely, it pinpoints ways in which the diversity of existing fiscal settings and organisations, both at national and European levels, can throw light on the theory.
The study analyses two of the most important European policies: Cohesion Policy and the Stability and Growth Pact. It compares the episode of German Unification to the 2004 European Enlargement. It pioneers a cross-country analysis of the various national fiscal settings. Finally, it highlights the close links between the dynamics of decision-making related to the main budgetary choices and the integration process.
The questions raised are crucial in the current context of economic and institutional uncertainty: How should we apprehend the Cohesion Policy, the main expression of European solidarity? How can the coordination of national fiscal policies be improved? How are European countries and their regions organised in fiscal and budgetary terms? What lessons can the EU draw from its own fiscal past and from that of its Member States?
Over and above the originality of the answers provided by the authors, the book suggests that it would be difficult to take the integration process further without first clarifying what Europe can, should or wants to do.
Sommario
Contents: Relationship between levels of government, budget, fiscal systems - Critics and presentation of the traditional theory of Fiscal Federalism (M-O-T) - Cohesion Policy - National and European fiscal policies (stabilisation) - Comparison between 2004 European enlargement and German Unification - Positive and normative analysis of European Fiscal Federalism, of EU fiscal-related problems and the likely evolution of the EU fiscal setting - Statistical study of the fiscal systems and of intergovernmental relationships in the EU and its 25 Member States - EU - the way forward in the current context.
Info autore
The Authors: Clément Vaneecloo is a Doctor in Economics and a researcher at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences in Lille (France). Specialist in European Economics, his main research interests include political economics, fiscal federalism, EU Cohesion and economic policies. He has been teaching at Lille 1 University since 2001.
Augusta Badriotti is a researcher at the Centro Studi sul Federalismo. She has worked in various institutions: the OECD, the Italian Ministry of Finance and Turin University. She holds an M.A. in Economics from the Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve (Belgium). Her research deals with public economics, fiscal systems and fiscal federalism.
Margherita Fornasini holds a degree in Economics from Pavia University. She has worked in the Department of European Studies at the Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve and for the Centro interdipartimentale di ricerca e documentazione sulla storia del ¿900 of Pavia University. Specialist in fiscal federalism and in the history of federalism, she currently works for the fiscal department of the municipality of Belgioioso.
