The Impact of the EU on National Fiscal Governance Systems

National fiscal frameworks (NFFs) represent a set of domestic arrangements to enhance the predictability and transparency of public finances. This chapter looks into a specific aspect of institutional convergence: the development of NFFs in the EU-11 countries following their EU accession. The turning point for the region was the emergence of supranational provisions in the context of the economic governance reforms between 2011 and 2013. These set in motion a comprehensive revamp of EU-11 NFFs, covering, most notably, the design of domestic numerical rules, medium-term budgetary frameworks and the set-up of national independent fiscal institutions (IFIs). This process has led to a broadly similar state of advancement compared to the ‘old’ Member States as corroborated by the various indices of the Commission’s Fiscal Governance Database. This chapter devotes special attention to EU-11 IFIs by discussing the observable patterns of their six main functions. It concludes that IFIs’ watchdog role has generally strengthened the public scrutiny over fiscal policy-making, partly reflecting the spread of good practices across the EU during the institution-building phase. Nonetheless, further efforts could be made so that fiscal councils would be able to play an even stronger role in budgetary planning and oversight.