The Sapir report in 2004 famously dubbed the EU Budget a historical relic. In spite of calls from many quarters for a comprehensive budget reform, the Council negotiation was hampered by many institutional and political constraints and managed to deliver only limited change.However, the final...

This paper assesses the extent to which the macroeconomic policy architecture of EMU represents a break with the past. This is carried out by estimating forward-looking fiscal and monetary policy rules for the Member States and by analysing them within the conceptual framework of the Fiscal...

The present paper looks at the notion of a NAIRU and asks whether it continues to stand up to rigorous analysis in terms of both its theoretical underpinnings or of its empirical applicability. The paper addresses the essential questions in relation to an examination of the NAIRU, namely:...

This paper explores how the Stability and Growth Pact may cope with the future costs of population ageing in the European Union. Clearly, population ageing has forced countries to reform their pension systems, and will continue to do so, both by reducing the generosity of pension arrangements...

Value-added per capita in EU countries has lagged behind the US. This is despite widespread reforms to product markets across EU countries aimed at increasing growth. This study analyses the macro-economic impact of product market reforms undertaken in the European Union over the 1980s and 1990s...

Within the context of the follow-up to the Single Market Review, the European Commission has screened EU manufacturing and service sectors for problems of market malfunctioning. This paper investigates the nature of these problems in the selected sectors and focuses on the following four...

This Report analyses and compares a number of indicators related to the evolution of the competitive behaviour of firms in the Single Market, from 1999 to 2007, in a selected number of both manufacturing and services industries and eight EU countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Poland,...

The findings reported here raise some serious concerns. Relative to domestic transactions, transactions within the European economy that occur across Member Sates are far more complex, are hindered by a number of significant barriers and, given the data that the group has been able to collect,...

This paper discusses the evolution of competitiveness, industrial and trade specialisation in the manufacturing sector of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). It is shown that the paths taken by the different CEECs have been quite diverse and we attempt to apply a combination of...

Using a variety of economic models, the Commission services have examined the impact of several reforms forming part of the Growth and Jobs Strategy (GJS). Overall, the results show that past reforms have delivered significant benefits, and that further reforms in key areas could generate...