The other option was the principle of individual responsibility, under which member states would remain largely independent in their choice of policies, but would be liable for the decisions they made. This liability principle promised to have a disciplinary effect.
Member states running unsound fiscal policies or dubious economic policies would only be able to borrow at worse terms, since investors would demand compensation for the risk they were taking. To make provisions in case the capital markets’ disciplinary effect was insufficient, the fiscal scope was to be narrowed further still by way of a common set of rules.