Stability and Growth Pact II? Let’s Move On to SGP III: “À la carte”

After the fuzziness in Europe that surrounded the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure foreseen by the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), the European Union had to restore the credibility of the weakened fiscal rule. On March 2005, the 25 members amended the SGP. The constraint was to keep alive the Treaty of Amsterdam, which instituted the SGP. Indeed, an attempt to make major changes to the SGP would have necessitated a new Treaty, and hence a ratification by the 25 countries. This could have meant no more Europe-wide fiscal rule. But are minor changes enough? This paper addresses this question by deciphering the amended version of the SGP, and finds that, in the case countries still breach the SGP, another minor change is possible: an “à la carte” version of the SGP.