Deliverable 6.4 by Iain Begg (LSE) has been published today:

Fiscal and other rules in EU economic governance: helpful, largely irrelevant or unenforceable?

Abstract: EU Member States have been pushed to adopt more extensive and intrusive fiscal rules, particularly in the euro area, but also in other EU Member States, yet evidence that they are succeeding is, at best, tentative. The EU level Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) has been – and remains – the most visible such rule, but has been complemented by a profusion of national rules and by new provisions on other sources of macroeconomic imbalance. Much of the analysis of rules has concentrated on their technical merits, but tends to neglect the political economy of compliance. This paper examines the latter looking at compliance with fiscal rules at EU and Member State levels, and at the rule-based mechanisms for curbing other macroeconomic imbalances. It concludes that politically-driven implementation and enforcement shortcomings are given too little attention, putting at risk the integrity and effectiveness of rules.