Presentation at the ARENA Center of European studies (University of Oslo): "EU versus core state powers: the customisation of European Union fiscal policy"
Eva Thomann presents her research "EU versus core state powers: the customisation of European Union fiscal policy", co-authored with Tiziano Zgaga and Mathieu Goubier, at the Arena Center of European Studies (University of Oslo) on 8 November 2022, 13.15h.
Member states (MS) use implementation to preserve national core state powers, such as fiscal policy, vis-à-vis the European Union (EU)—by choosing whether to adopt stricter or looser rules than the EU requires. However, these choices and their reasons when the EU extends its fiscal competences to address a crisis are understudied. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we study the customisation of the Fiscal Compact in France, Germany, and Italy in 2012 (N=18). Results suggest that ‘uploading factors’ (opposition to treaty ratification and EU enforcement) constrain, enable, or incentivise, and ‘downloading factors’ (domestic deficit, debt, budgetary discipline, and veto players) trigger customisation. MS exercise ‘opposition through the back door’ when uploading outcomes do not reflect their preferences, or do not provide a credible deterrent. More often, however, MS as ‘customisers’ act as especially ambitious problem-solvers or signal compliance, when uploading outcomes reflect their preferences or provide a credible enforcement threat.
Download paper (restricted access).
Please note that this paper is work in progress and thus has limited distribution, please contact us if you would like access. Do not cite without permission from the author.
The event is hybrid with Eva Thomann partaking via zoom. If you would like to attend digitally, contact Silva Hoffmann to get the zoom link.
ARENA Centre for European Studies is a multidisciplinary research centre at the University of Oslo, studying the direction, dynamics and sustainability of the evolving European political order. ARENA has conducted research on political, economic, legal and social integration, transformation and cooperation in Europe since 1994.
Here you can find more about the ARENA Center of European Studis