Experts and the reform of the EU fiscal rules during and after crisis

The European monetary fiscal rules are instrumental in guiding the Eurozone area member states' public economies and thus also in the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. These rules were frozen for the first time at the beginning of the pandemic. This action differed significantly from the previous crisis, the Eurozone crisis when the rules were strengthened. Additionally, since the pandemic, the fiscal rules have been under reform. In December 2023, the Economic and Financial (Ecofin) Council reached an agreement that strengthened the country-specific flexibility in the application of fiscal adjustment. I present a research project on this reform process by focusing on its inclusiveness, expertise base and guiding principles. How democratic and open is the process and does the reform democratise the EMU policies or provide more leeway for national economic policies? In this paper, I focus especially on the experts’ role in the process. Additionally, the research analyses whether the freezing of the rules and the ongoing reform represent a paradigm change in the EU economic policies. The process tracing research is based on interviews with key Commission officials, EU member state politicians and advisors, MEPs and their assistants in the process and official documents from the Commission and the European parliament.