Constitutional Law and the EU Balanced Budget Principle

This book explores the balanced budget rule as an economic standard and a legal principle, evaluating its impact on legal systems, political institutions, and social values. It examines the feasibility and effectiveness of the rule and suggests that it goes beyond the ethical issue of public debt and injunctions imposed by international financial institutions. It argues that the balanced budget is a tool for devising public policies and conceiving qualitative choices regarding the well-being of citizens.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 266 pages
Publication date: 29 January 2024
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Exploring the balanced budget rule as an economic standard and as a legal principle, this comprehensive book delves into the context and content of the balanced budget rule, while also presenting a critical appraisal of its impact on legal systems, political institutions, and social values, particularly in the context of its constitutionalization in European and national legal systems.

A series of chapters explore the feasibility and effectiveness of the balanced budget rule, considering its potential implications for the separation of powers. powers within the state, democratic decision-making, the European social model, and the protection of fundamental social rights. The book suggests that this impact extends beyond the ethical considerations of public debt as a burden on future generations and the injunctions imposed by international financial institutions on national public finances.

The transformation of fiscal discipline from an economic requirement into a legal rule demanding a balanced budget represents a challenge to the political nature of the budgetary process while also providing the flexibility needed to further fiscal federalism within the European Union.

In this book, the authors argue that the balanced budget rule is nothing more than it has always been: an instrument for devising public policies in a rational manner, a tool for conceiving qualitative choices regarding the well-being of citizens. The book provides a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate about fiscal policy and governance in Europe and beyond.

Weight: 426g
Dimension: 233 x 154 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032119588