The Fiscal Governance of the European Union

"After finishing this book, readers will end up not only understanding fiscal governance but also learning more about the EU itself. A must read for anyone who wishes to understand European integration." --Amy Verdun, Professor, University of Victoria, Canada and Leiden University, Netherlands.  “Based on timely and insightful analysis, this book offers a comprehensive exploration of the evolving landscape of EU fiscal regulation.” --Christoph Knill, Professor, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the fiscal governance of the European Union (EU) from the Maastricht Treaty (1992) to the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (2024) and the new wave of ‘defence spending’ in Europe in 2025. It shows how and why the stability paradigm of Economic and Monetary Union has changed across three major crises – the euro crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and as a compromise between different fiscal ideas supported in particular by Germany, France and Italy. Since the intricate set of fiscal rules has become increasingly more flexible to allow for more spending both at the national and the European level, the book investigates to what extent the original stability paradigm has been replaced by a new fiscal paradigm. It examines the drivers behind crucial moments of fiscal change and reflects upon the implications for the future of the EU. The book will appeal to scholars, practitioners and students of EU fiscal integration in political science, public administration, and law. Tiziano Zgaga is Researcher at the University of Konstanz, Germany. He is Principal Investigator of the three-year project (2025-2028) “Towards a post-pandemic fiscal union? Differentiated member state governance of EU money: the National Recovery and Resilience Plans” (EUMONEY).