EU governance in the run-up to 2025: A Joint Budgetary Procedure

• Main Author: Nicoli Francesco
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre for Studies on Federalism 2016-10-01
• Series: Perspectives on Federalism
• Subjects: Eurozone; Economic and Monetary Union; Joint Budgetary Procedure
• Online Access: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/pof.2016.8.issue-2/pof-2016-0011/pof-2016-0011.xml?format=INT

The Euro Area (Eurozone, or EZ) is navigating uncharted waters; it has started, in slow motion, to slide towards a fiscal federation, while still lacking both the fiscal capacity and the democratic qualification to achieve this goal. Strengthening the EMU’s democratic profile is a fundamental requirement for the sustainability of the EMU as much as its completion with a fiscal and economic arm. Yet, according to the Five Presidents Report released in 2015, no substantial progress is expected to be achieved before 2025. Against this background, this paper is structured in two parts. The first part analyses the most recent trends in the Governance of the Eurozone. The second part discusses whether a transition from governance to government of the Monetary Union is both feasible and effective, advancing a new proposal -a Joint Budgetary Procedure-tailored to strengthen the European Semester with stronger incentive mechanisms, greater reach and stronger governance.