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By Prof. Dr Bruno COLMANT, Member of the Belgian Royal Academy
Just a few weeks before the elections, the European Parliament validated the reform of the European Union's budgetary rules, guaranteeing public finances' recovery. In an admittedly modular fashion, these European authorities are thus putting forward the Maastricht budgetary barriers concerning public debt, which must not exceed the reference value of 60% of gross domestic product (GDP), and public deficit, which must not exceed the reference value of 3% of GDP.
These criteria, however, are based on an outdated logic. The public debt criterion, for example, is based on the idea that, in a context of nominal growth of 5%, a budget deficit of 3% is supposed to cover the renewal of...
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