IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sec/cnstan/0295.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fiscal Challenges Facing the EU New Member States

Author

Listed:
  • Malgorzata Antczak
  • Marek Dabrowski
  • Michal Gorzelak

Abstract

Since May 1, 2004 the European Union's new member states (NMS) have been subject to the same fiscal rules established in the Treaty on the European Union and Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) as the old member states (OMS). The NMS entered the EU running structural fiscal deficits. More than half of them (including the biggest ones) breach the Treaty's actual deficit limits and are already the subject of the excessive deficit procedure. A high rate of economic growth makes the fiscal situation of most NMS reasonably manageable in the short- to medium-term, but the long term fiscal outlook, mostly connected with the consequences of an aging population, is dramatic. The NMS should therefore prepare themselves now to be able to meet this challenge over the next decades (the same goes for the OMS). In addition, the perspective of EMU entry should provide the NMS with a strong incentive to reduce their deficits now because waiting (and postponing both fiscal adjustment and the adoption of the Euro) will only result in higher cumulative fiscal costs. The additional financial burden connected with EU accession cannot serve as excuse in delaying fiscal consolidation. In spite of the growing debate on the relevance of the EU's fiscal surveillance rules and not excluding the possibility of their limited modification, they should not be relaxed. Frequent breaching of these rules cannot serve as an argument that they are irrelevant from the point of view of safeguarding fiscal prudence and avoiding fiscal 'free riding' under the umbrella of monetary union. Any version of fiscal surveillance rules (either current or modified) must be solidly anchored in an effective enforcement mechanism (including automatic sanctions) at the EU and national levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Malgorzata Antczak & Marek Dabrowski & Michal Gorzelak, 2005. "Fiscal Challenges Facing the EU New Member States," CASE Network Studies and Analyses 0295, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:sec:cnstan:0295
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://case-research.eu/upload/publikacja_plik/4932091_SA%20295last.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacek Rostowski, 2004. "The Stability and Growth Pact - Essential and Unfeasible," CASE Network Studies and Analyses 0275, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Marek Dabrowski, 2006. "A Strategy for EMU Enlargement," Springer Books, in: Marek Dabrowski & Jacek Rostowski (ed.), The Eastern Enlargement of the Eurozone, chapter 0, pages 199-225, Springer.
    3. Joanna Siwinska & Piotr Bujak, 2006. "The Short-Run Macroeconomic Effects of Discretionary Fiscal Policy Changes," Springer Books, in: Marek Dabrowski & Jacek Rostowski (ed.), The Eastern Enlargement of the Eurozone, chapter 0, pages 131-145, Springer.
    4. Elżbieta Kawecka-Wyrzykowska, 2002. "Merits and shortcomings of the Commission's financial framework for Eastward enlargement," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 37(2), pages 80-83, March.
    5. Coricelli, Fabrizio & Ercolani, Valerio, 2002. "Cyclical and Structural Deficits on the Road to Accession: Fiscal Rules for an Enlarged European Union," CEPR Discussion Papers 3672, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mariusz Jarmuzek, 2005. "Are the EU new member states fiscally sustainable? An empirical analysis," UCL SSEES Economics and Business working paper series 51, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES).
    2. Ferré, Montserrat, 2012. "The effects of uncertainty about countries’ compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 660-674.
    3. Dabrowski, Marek, 2010. "The global financial crisis: Lessons for European integration," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 38-54, March.
    4. Marek Dabrowski, 2006. "A Strategy for EMU Enlargement," Springer Books, in: Marek Dabrowski & Jacek Rostowski (ed.), The Eastern Enlargement of the Eurozone, chapter 0, pages 199-225, Springer.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marek Dabrowski, 2006. "A Strategy for EMU Enlargement," Springer Books, in: Marek Dabrowski & Jacek Rostowski (ed.), The Eastern Enlargement of the Eurozone, chapter 0, pages 199-225, Springer.
    2. Michał Mackiewicz, 2006. "Przyczyny deficytu finansów publicznych w świetle nowej ekonomii politycznej," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 1-22.
    3. Jérôme Creel & Sandrine Levasseur, 2004. "How would a fixed-exchange-rate regime fit the transition economies?. The cases of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 91(5), pages 83-120.
    4. Jerome Creel & Jacques Le Cacheux, 2003. "Inflation divergence and public deficits in a monetary union," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2003-05, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    5. Szapáry, György & Orbán, Gábor, 2004. "A stabilitási és növekedési paktum az új tagállamok szemszögéből [The Stabilization and Growth Pact in the light of the new EU member-states]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 810-831.
    6. Catherine Mathieu & Henri Sterdyniak, 2003. "Reforming the Stability and Growth Pact: Breaking the Ice," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-00972861, HAL.
    7. Maria Neicheva, 2006. "Non-Keynesian Effects of Government Expenditure on Output in Bulgaria: An HP Filter Approach," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 1-12.
    8. Holger Wolf, 2012. "Eurozone entry criteria after the crisis," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-6, March.
    9. Dybczak, Kamil & Melecky, Martin, 2014. "EU fiscal stance vulnerability: Are the old members the gold members?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 87-101.
    10. LSE Enterprise,, 2011. "Study on the impact of the single market on cohesion: implications for cohesion policy, growth and competitiveness," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 42840, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Natalia Salazar Ferro & Diego Prada H., 2004. "El balance estructural del gobierno central en Colombia," Coyuntura Económica, Fedesarrollo, March.
    12. P. Kiss, Gábor & Vadas, Gábor, 2005. "Légy résen! Az államháztartási egyenleg ciklikus igazítása [Be on your guard! Cyclically adjusted budget deficit]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 109-129.
    13. Jerome Creel & Gwenaelle Poilon, 2008. "Is public capital productive in Europe?," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(6), pages 673-691.
    14. Jerome Creel, 2003. "Ranking Fiscal Policy Rules: the Golden Rule of Public Finance vs. the Stability and Growth Pact," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2003-04, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    15. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2975 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Orban, Gabor & Szapary, Gyorgy, 2004. "The Stability and Growth Pact from the perspective of the new member states," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 839-864, October.
    17. Peter Benczur & Attila Ratfai, 2010. "Economic fluctuations in Central and Eastern Europe: the facts," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(25), pages 3279-3292.
    18. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2302 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Paolo Biraschi, "undated". "Searching for the optimal EMU fiscal rule:an ex-post analysis of the SGP reform proposals," Working Papers wp2008-7, Department of the Treasury, Ministry of the Economy and of Finance.
    20. Vladimir Vladimirov & Maria Neicheva, 2008. "The Stabilizing Role of Fiscal Policy: Theoretical Background and Empirical Evidence," IBSU Scientific Journal, International Black Sea University, vol. 2(1), pages 7-22.
    21. Sébastien Pommier, 2008. "The Use of Fiscal Policy in EMU: First Appraisal and Future Prospects," EKONOMIAZ. Revista vasca de Economía, Gobierno Vasco / Eusko Jaurlaritza / Basque Government, vol. 69(03), pages 28-45.
    22. Wissem Khanfir, 2016. "Threshold effect of fiscal policy on private consumption : Evidence from Tunisia," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 18(59), pages 95-110, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sec:cnstan:0295. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marta Kowerko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/caseepl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.