The implementation in France of Council Directive 2011/85/EU on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the member states

Abstract

Council Directive 2011/85/EU on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States fi ts into the process of strengthening European governance aimed at ensuring economic and fi nancial stability of the European Union. The new rules governing the surveillance of national fi scal and economic policies have been adopted in the “Six Pack” along with the “Two Pack” and the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCG). The Directive states the minimum requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States. The budgetary framework is defi ned as “the set of arrangements, procedures, rules and institutions that underlie the conduct of budgetary policies of general government”. Among the components of this framework, the Directive distinguishes between the accounting and the statistics, the forecasts, the numerical fi scal rules, the medium-term budgetary frameworks as well as the transparency and the consistency of the national fi nancial public system as a whole. The aim of the Directive is the establishment of a budgetary framework that is able to respect the commitments subscribed by the states to the European Union, and in particular Protocol No. 12 on excessive defi cit procedure. This requires rapid consolidation of public fi nances in a number of states, including France. The strengthening of public fi nancial systems is hereinafter examined. Preventing a new crisis within the Union requires the respect of European criteria of defi cit and debt. The trajectory to return to a balanced budget fi ts into the framework of multiannual fi scal planning reinforced by Directive 2011/85/