Le piccole riforme della politica economica e il loro impatto sull’Unione economica e monetaria

Recent reforms in the field of economic policy have called into question – but without a complete overturn – two basic assumptions which have been in place since the Maastricht Treaty, i.e. the stark division between that policy and monetary policy and the faith in the ability of market mechanisms to discipline the conduct of public finances. Moreover, the big plan to react to the economic consequences of the pandemic, called Next Generation EU, has brought innovations which have enriched the capacities and powers of the EU in the domain of economic policy. At the same time, the combined effects of these and other reforms have created some paradoxes examined in the paper, that revolve around the rigid structure of the EU budget – which leaves little room for structured economic policy programmes different from the reactions to single, although relevant, crises – and the difficulty in identifying the subjects holding responsibility for economic policy choices.