The chairman of the European Fiscal Board, Niels Thygesen, believes that it is better to give powers and means at European level to stimulate investments in the ecological and digital transitions, rather than creating exemptions from the European fiscal rules such as the ‘golden rule’.
In our annual report (see EUROPE 12833/23), we mention the idea of allocating “specific national envelopes” in the EU budget to invest in common goods such as ‘green’ and/or cross-border infrastructure, Thygesen said on Thursday 18 November in a dialogue with the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
This approach, which is similar to that pursued under the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan, is ‘superior’ to the approach of simply exempting certain expenditure from the Stability and Growth Pact, he said. It would also provide a guarantee against potential future cuts in investment.
Thygesen, who will present the committee’s position favouring the creation of a central fiscal capacity at EU level with a stabilisation function at the December Ecofin Council, also welcomed the idea of making permanent some temporary instruments used at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as the SURE instrument for supporting national short-time working schemes. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)