The Implications of the Revised EU Economic Governance Framework for National Economic Policy

This chapter looks at implications of the newly-enacted instruments of EU economic governance for national economic, fiscal and social policy. In doing so, it adopts a bipartite structure and distinguishes between lender and borrower states. It seeks to shed light on the practical application of these instruments, juxtaposing EU economic guidance addressed to Germany with the monitoring of economic developments in Greece, which is carried out by the ‘Troika’ and independent national fiscal ‘watchdogs’. The dual challenge is to highlight the policy constraints flowing from EU- or Eurozone-wide developments, and to assess the rigorousness of EU and independent national oversight over fiscal and economic policy.