Coordination of Monetary and Fiscal Policy in the European Monetary Union

Abstract

Given the presence of numerous fiscal policy holders and only one central bank within the European Monetary Union, the coordination of macroeconomic policies has two dimensions – the coordination among fiscal policy holders and the coordination among monetary and fiscal policy holders. Under the influence of the Global Economic Crisis, the need arose to enhance the coordination mechanism and to have a new instrument for the monitoring and coordination of fiscal and economic policies in the European Union. Using an analytical and deductive methodology, this paper aims to present a brief overview of the existing theoretical research of the said issue, showing at the same time the changes in the EMU coordination mechanism created in consequence of the crisis and emphasizing the challenges that this new mechanism already faces.