Synopses & Reviews
The Maastricht Treaty and the Stability Growth Pact demand that EU member states comply with their famous deficit and debt requirements of 3 and 60 per cent of GDP. Yet, how can the EU's leaders be certain that these targets are met? Is a 3 per cent deficit in Belgium equivalent to one in Italy or France?
Making the EMU explores how the Treaty's budgetary surveillance procedure monitors member state budgetary policies, harmonizes their budgetary data, and effectively determines which member states qualified for member status and are subject to the Pact's sanctions. This book provides the first examination of how the EU entrusted the credibility of these critical budgetary figures to a relatively minor European Commission agency, and what effect the surveillance procedure has on the making of the EMU and the enforcement of Maastricht.
Review
"Savage's careful account of the politics of budgetary surveillance is a must-read for anyone who wants to gain a deeper understanding of how the EU works and the impact of EMU on budgetary practices in the member states"--Perspectives on Politics
"The unique blend of legal and economic expertise, in combination with elite interviews and work shadowing, enables the book to come to an informed and seemingly logical conclusion. I can enthusiastically recommend this contribution to the ongoing debate on the EU's involvement in the harmonization of fiscal and monetary policies."--Journal of Common Market Studies
"Savage's book is an impressively researched and surprisingly engaging account of a relatively arcane subject. It is a convincing application of delegation theory, used to reveal a hitherto unexplored but clearly crucial element in the complicated process leading to the start of EMU's Stage III and the application of Stability and Growth Pact rules and Broad Economic Policy Guidelines which form the core of macroeconomic policy coordination in the Euro-zone."--West European Politics
"Savage presents his empirical evidence in a convincing and readable style. Researchers interested in the workings of Eurostat in general and its role during the evaluation of the Maastricht criteria will find this an extremely enlightening book."--Political Studies Review
About the Author
James D. Savage is author of Making the EMU: The Politics of Budgetary Surveillance and the Enforcement of Maastricht; Funding Science in America: Congress, Universities, and the Politics of the Academic Pork Barrel; and Balanced Budgets and American Politics. He has written articles appearing in such journals as the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, and Public Administration Review. He is the recipient of the APSA's Harold D. Lasswell dissertation prize, Olin-Bradley post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs fellowship, Fulbright-European Union Affairs fellowship, and other fellowships and awards. James D. Savage is currently Professor of Politics, University of Virginia.
Table of Contents
1. Enforcing Maastricht: The Significance of Treaty Surveillance
2. Treaty Delegation and the Institutional Structure of Surveillance
3. Designing a Compliance Information System: ESA and the Techniques of Surveillance
4. European Statistical Case Law for Stage II of Convergence 1994-97
5. European Statistical Case Law for Stage III Monetary Union 1998-2004
6. Credibility, Institutionalization, and Europeanization
Appendix: Other Eurostat Sage II Decisions 1995-97