Measuring success: How fiscally conservative Eurozone member states have shaped the SGP

The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) has undergone two fundamental reforms in response to the Eurozone crisis and changes to the post-NGEU policy-making environment in the Economic and Financial Affairs Council. Within this context, this contribution assesses how a coalition of fiscally conservative Eurozone member states have successfully influenced the negative and positive conditionality components of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) during the reforms to the Pact in 2010-2013 and in 2024. To do so it draws on actor-centred institutionalism to demonstrate that fiscally conservative Eurozone member states through a mixture of their power resources and building coalitions with like-minded fiscally conservative non-Eurozone member states have successfully shaped the outcome of negotiations on enhancing the conditionality components of the SGP.