Details
- Publication date
- 21 September 2026
Description
The EFB released a new report assessing the first full implementation of the reformed EU fiscal framework based on 2025 fiscal outturn data and the outlook for 2026.
The EFB highlights several areas for improvement. These include the compliance labels used by the Commission, the methodology used to calculate deviations from the recommended expenditure path through the control account, the limited transparency surrounding discretionary revenue measures, and the cursory assessment of reforms and investments underpinning longer adjustment periods in some Member States.
The report also expresses concern about the widening use of discretion and of new forms of flexibility. In particular, the EFB warns that extending the national escape clause (NEC) beyond defence spending to also cover certain energy resilience measures risks undermining the credibility of the reformed fiscal framework.
Pieter Hasekamp, Chair of the European Fiscal Board, said:
“Every new form of discretion and new degree of flexibility may seem reasonable from a political perspective, but rules are judged in the accumulation of precedent, and a framework that bends with each new shock risks losing its ultimate purpose, the sustainability of public finances.”
On enforcement, the EFB notes that the excessive deficit procedure remains the only effective enforcement instrument under the revised rules and observes a tendency towards forbearance, with informal guidance increasingly substituting formal Treaty-based enforcement. New elements of discretion, applied when averting or postponing procedures under the corrective arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, are weighing on the effectiveness of the enforcement tool.
The EFB concludes that the reformed framework has made a workable start, but stresses that its long-term success will depend on more systematic, transparent and even-handed implementation.