The Commission and the Member States have made considerable efforts to address methodological issues and to draw up comparable measures of long-term sustainability. Moreover, in recent years, sustainability has been as an integral part of the assessment of Member States fiscal plans in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact. This progress is welcome and should continue.
Ultimately, however, a certain degree of judgement, or “discretion”, when assessing long-term sustainability cannot be avoided, given the complexities involved. Assessments of long-term sustainability do not therefore lend themselves to be summarised in terms of a single debt variable that could serve as the basic benchmark for multilateral surveillance.