Perfect rules may not even exist. Creating rules that ensure optimal countercyclical fiscal policies and fiscal sustainability is inherently difficult. Still, I would argue that EU fiscal rules can work, do work – and they can and must also be further improved.
In the future, the Economic and Monetary Union can work smoothly only if the public finances of all member countries are credibly on a sustainable footing. A functional combination of fiscal policy rules and market discipline is necessary to achieve this.