Public investment has been low in recent years, resulting in shortcomings in infrastructure and other public assets capable of underpinning economic growth and competitiveness. Efforts at the EU level to establish a Sovereignty Fund intended to enhance competitiveness and to respond to the likes...

This paper presents an independent evaluation of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) carried out in 2015. IFAC was set up as an independent fiscal institution in 2011 to monitor the fiscal policy of the Irish government. Similar fiscal "watchdogs" have emerged across Europe following the...

In recent years, many countries have sought to transform their fiscal frameworks, with the aim of rendering their public finances more sustainable and preventing the emergence of fiscal problems. This report presents the findings of comparative research into the fiscal frameworks of five...

The EU's finances have become more complex because of a proliferation of off‑budget mechanisms alongside the traditional budget. Most of these new mechanisms involve borrowing and lending activities. The agreement of the Next Generation EU response to the pandemic accentuates the trend...

The current financial, economic and fiscal crisis is among other things characterised by complex interrelations between financial, fiscal, macroeconomic and political instability. One instability breeds another, with feedback loops generating self-reinforcing adverse cycles: The financial crisis...