While deficits have been pared back significantly since the peak of the crisis, the debt ratios in many countries are still extremely high and are seeing only moderate decreases, at most. The rules should be refocused more clearly on the objective of sound public finances. Their formulation and implementation have to be more transparent and logical, and involve fewer exceptions.
A more rigorous implementation of the rules could also be achieved by giving responsibility for fiscal surveillance and compliance with the rules to an independent authority, such as the ESM, instead of the Commission. An institution with a clear mandate concerning sound public finances would come into less conflict with numerous other European policy objectives.