Dimension fiscale de l’intégration économique : Peut l’Union Européenne s’ajouter l’union fiscale à l’union monétaire ?[The fiscal aspects of Economic Integration: might the EU become a Fiscal Union?]

Béla Balassa, the most significant theorist of the economic integration, dares to argue that this is just one for all multi-country areas, e.g. despite economic growth or development that might be different for different countries. Then, the diversity in terms of integration would be the same as the integration stages. In Europe and Latin America, where integration initiatives really worked, there is just the EU also accepting to aim the integration up to its final Balassa’s stage. They had got the monetary integration (union) and this even as un unprecedented union around a single currency used by several countries – not even Balassa, this time, thought about this, despite that the theorist had a few words about aspects like currency, taxation, politic integration and even the federal State. Now things got also different: around the year 2000 there was the “Happy new Euro!” with its fire-works feast, but the aftermath of these was coming to be different, i.e. with crises like “Lehman-Brothers”, “Brexit”, the pandemic and not only, see a European Constitution project rejected by the French, Danish and Dutch voters, while the Union’s ambitions went to its enlargement besides, and lastly there is the war in Ukraine, with its consequences of all kind. So, what about the integration process? All agree it is not complete, but just singular voices do warn about that staying in the present monetary union stage would be not viable and even dangerous for all, here including for the integration started many decades ago – i.e. the fiscal union is supposed to accompany the monetary one, as the rule that ever was for all monetary unions.