Walking the Tightrope: Politicization and the Commission's Enforcement of the SGP

Reinout Arthur van der Veer

Journal of Common Market Studies, 2022, vol. 60, issue 1, 81-100

Abstract: Recent research indicates that bottom‐up EU politicization shapes top‐down EU policy enforcement, yet leaves open questions on the pervasiveness of these effects in policy areas that are depoliticized by design. This contribution asks how societal EU politicization shaped the enforcement of the Stability and Growth Pact up until its COVID‐19‐induced suspension. It employs causal process‐tracing to analyse fiscal rule enforcement under varying levels and constellations of EU politicization. Results indicate that enforcement by the European Commission is shaped both by mandate and exogenous pressures created by politicization and the reputational concerns they induce. Moreover, politicization has gradually pushed the Commission towards increasingly flexible enforcement of EU fiscal rules. These conclusions are relevant because they show that politicization permeates even the most depoliticized areas of EU policy. Additionally, they suggest that the SGP's COVID‐19‐induced suspension can be understood as a continuation of existing enforcement strategies.

Date: 2022
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