Fiscal federalism

During their meeting, the new framework of fiscal rules, the course of implementation of the Recovery Fund, as well as tax policy issues were discussed

National Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis told the Parliament's Finance and European Affairs Committees on Thursday that the government will "have to be serious as regards fiscal policy and we will be. We believe in fiscal seriousness."

The European Union should centralise more of its budget spending, especially for common goods, as that would relieve the burden on more indebted countries and promote convergence, Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot said on Thursday.

While Cyprus' economic growth is expected to remain strong, the economic and the fiscal outlooks are exposed to significant downside risks, DBRS Morningstar said in a commentary on the country's new Stability Program.

The Fiscal Council has assessed the proposed state budgets for the next two years, finding they to some extent reflect the required course of action, but also contain shortcomings and entail risks, including a high level of discretionary expenditure in the form of investment and pay rises.

On 22 June 2018, the Council adopted a decision establishing that Romania has once again failed to take effective action to correct a significant budgetary deviation.

It issued a new recommendation, the third to Romania since June 2017 under the EU's 'significant deviation procedure'.

Speaking at a traditional meeting with members of the Serbian Association of Managers on Friday, Fiscal Council representatives noted that "foundations for sustainable and healthy public finances and acceleration of economic growth can be set in 2018 as the most significant quantitative objectives of fiscal consolidation were achieved in 2017."

The proposed 2017 budget bill brings improvements to public finances, but the opportunity to take a bigger stride towards a lasting recovery has been missed.

This is according to the Fiscal Council - an independent state institution that reports to the Serbian National Assembly.

Serbia's Fiscal Council believes that the government should not loosen its restrictive fiscal policy too early.

Increasing economic growth and employment calls for making more efforts to improve the investment climate, this independent state body that reports to the National Assembly said.

Bulgaria's government has approved a bill on the creation of a Fiscal Council.

The bill, titled Fiscal Council an Corrective Mechanisms Act, describes the new entity as an independent consultative body on issues of fiscal governance, according to reports of dnevnik.bg.