Yet, for well-known political reasons, the Maastricht Treaty stopped short of assigning responsibility for fiscal and economic policies to the central level. Member States retained responsibility for these policy fields. At the same time, the Treaty called on governments to treat such policies as a matter of common concern.
From our on-site inspection work over the last number of years, we have identified many weaknesses in firms’ abilities to effectively understand, use and report on their data. Issues arise from a patchwork of legacy and newer systems that do not talk to each other, resulting in fragmented data that requires manual interventions and adjustments before it can be used.