HARMONISATION AND FISCAL COMPETITION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

Despite all efforts to harmonize the economic and political systems, the economic globalization and the intensification of capital mobility also created the conditions of a fiscal competition between the EU member states. Currently, in the European Union there is not a fully integrated European tax system, which has an impact on how the same decision of fiscal policy is transmitted at the level of each member state. The present paper summarizes some pros/cons regarding the orientation of the fiscal harmonisation efforts in a manner allowing governments to use the fiscal policy as an instrument of public policy in their efforts to cope with the asymmetric macroeconomic shocks and the adjustment of the macroeconomic indicators.

Keywords

• European Union
• fiscal harmonisation
• fiscal policy
• fiscal sovereignty
• fiscal competition