Domestic Medium-Term Budgetary Frameworks in the EU: Fit for Purpose and for the Future?

Medium-term budgetary frameworks (MTBFs) are a key element of national fiscal frameworks and they are becoming increasingly relevant in the EU economic governance framework. Considering the role envisaged for medium-term planning in the reformed EU economic governance framework, this paper takes stock of MTBFs progress and developments achieved in the EU Member States in the last decade. EU legal provisions adopted after the great financial crisis have contributed to the development of domestic MTBFs in the EU, setting minimum requirements and a common legal basis for establishing such frameworks. The diverse mediumterm planning practices reflect country-specific circumstances but also point to areas that could be further developed to foster stable and binding MTBFs that are at the same time flexible enough to be resilient to shocks. For instance, medium-term planning could e more effective. Moreover, the scope of domestic MTBFs could be broader to enhance their capacity to deal with existing and future challenges, such as inflation and climate change.