This article provides an overview of the impact of public sector pay and employment cutbacks in EU countries and discusses their justifi cation as part of austerity packages. It begins with the outcomes in the countries first hit by the economic crisis before discussing the impact of the crisis...

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic crisis as well as demographic and climate change pose major challenges for public finances. This article deals with the implications of demographic trends in Switzerland, i.e. the progressive ageing of the population and its impact on the country’s public...

The 1992 EC budgetary procedure and its outcome illustrated two things. Firstly, after the relative calm of the past few years, the budget is moving back up the political agenda in the Community. Secondly, it is becoming clearer which issues will figure most prominently in the debate on the...

In a speech to the European Parliament on 18th February 1987 the Commission President Delors publicly announced the Commission's proposals for a fundamental reorganization of the system of financing the Community and of Community budgetary policy. What is the background of these proposals? How...

Those economists who expected the increasing US budget deficits in recent years to have a negative impact on private investment spending have so far been proved wrong. Hans-Peter Fröhlich provides an analysis of what has happened and examines the interrelation between public sector deficits and...

The EC's budgetary problems are coming to a head. For 1983 virtually all the Community's resources have been utilized, and there are growing fears that the Community will soon have to declare itself bankrupt unless changes are made to current policy. What should be done to secure the financing...