Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 12/2010

Will It Be Brussels, Berlin, or Financial Markets that Check Moral Hazard in Europe's Bailout Union? Most Likely the Latter!

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard

October 2010

Peterson Institute for International Economics

Abstract

The European Union has thus far done an adequate job of preventing the Greek sovereign debt crisis from getting out of hand, but it is clear that the European Union's fiscal surveillance framework failed both before and during the Great Recession. It is crucial that European leaders develop a solid long-term plan for reforming the EU fiscal policy and surveillance framework. Reform of the EU fiscal surveillance framework is feasible as early as this December, based on work that has already started in Brussels, among other places.