The Erasmus Center for Economic and Financial Governance organised, in collaboration with the Centre de droit européen - Université libre de Bruxelles, a workshop in Brussels on the new EU economic governance framework, with leading experts from the academia and the EU and national institutions.
In the twilight of the 2019–2024 legislative period, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament were able to strike a deal to reform the EU’s fiscal and economic governance framework. The EU legislature adopted two regulations and one directive, which amended the Stability and Growth Pact and the requirements for national budgetary frameworks, respectively. The new EU economic governance framework entered into force on 30 April 2024.
Dr. Menelaos Markakis (Erasmus School of Law), Professor Dr. Paul Dermine (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Professor Dr. Fabian Amtenbrink (Erasmus School of Law) co-organised a workshop in Brussels on the revised EU economic governance framework, with emphasis on the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). The overall ambition of the event was to bring together academics and practitioners - not strictly lawyers - from the EU and national institutions to reflect on the recent reform of the SGP, and the questions and challenges that its implementation may raise. The event took place on 25 October 2024 at the University Foundation in Brussels.
The speakers were asked, inter alia, to reflect on the following questions:
- Has the reform, and most notably the revision of the SGP, achieved its stated ambitions (as they were, for example, identified at the start of the economic governance review)?
- What are, in your view, the main challenges and potential problems the implementation of the new framework may give rise to?
- How is the reform, in your view, likely to impact the institutional dynamics between the EU and its Member States, and between the EU institutions themselves?
The programme of the event was as follows:
Programme
| What | Who |
|---|---|
| Panel 1: The new EU legal framework of economic policy | Chair: Prof. Dr. Fabian Amtenbrink (Erasmus University Rotterdam & Collège d'Europe) |
| The revised surveillance framework (preventive arm) | Prof. Dr. Paul Dermine (Université Libre de Bruxelles) |
| The revised enforcement framework (corrective arm) | Dr. Menelaos Markakis (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Accountability arrangements after the reform | Prof. Dr. Diane Fromage (University of Salzburg) |
| Panel 2: Practical implications and first experiences | Chair: Prof. Dr. Paul Dermine |
| A perspective from the European Commission | Mr Gilles Mourre (Deputy to Director, Head of Unit, Fiscal policy and surveillance (ECFIN.C.1)) |
| A perspective from the Council of the EU | Ms Alenka Jaschke (Head of Unit, General Secretariat of the Council of the EU) |
| A perspective from the European Fiscal Board | Dr. Martin Larch (Head of European Fiscal Board Secretariat) |
| A perspective from a national parliament | Mr Sander van de Laar (EU advisor on financial affairs, Tweede Kamer) |
| Panel 3: The new framework: cornerstone of a more resilient euro area? | Chair: Dr. Menelaos Markakis |
| EMU Economic Governance Three Decades On: Necessary conditions and hopeful assumptions since Maastricht | Dr. Anna Peychev (European University Institute) |
| Building blocks of fiscal resilience in the euro area | Prof. Dr. Fabian Amtenbrink |
The following experts also joined the roundtable discussion (listed in alphabetical order): Marco Bevilacqua (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Luiss Guido Carli University), Pietro Giacomelli (Trainee in the Eurozone team of the Legal Service, European Commission), Anastasia Karatzia (Associate Professor, University of Essex), Hans Keesom (from the Dutch Tweede Kamer), Alexandros Koumoutzis Mitsos (PhD Candidate, Erasmus University Rotterdam & Supervision Analyst, European Central Bank), Mattis Leson (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Freie Universität Berlin), Nicola Lupo (Full Professor of Public Law, Luiss Guido Carli University), Sebastiano Sabato (Senior Researcher, European Social Observatory), Marta Simoncini (Associate Professor, Luiss Guido Carli University), Ludovic Suttor-Sorel (Head of the European Macro Policy Network), Anna Zemskova (Postdoctoral Researcher, Lund University) and Dimitri Zurstrassen (Policy Analyst and Researcher, Luiss Institute for European Analysis and Policy).
- More information
For more information about this event, please contact the co-organisers at markakis@law.eur.nl and paul.dermine@ulb.be.
