Benefits and drawbacks of an “expenditure rule”, as well as of a "golden rule", in the EU fiscal framework

Focusing the EU fiscal framework on an expenditure rule could help to increase transparency, compliance and ownership. In various other respects, like estimation errors or counter-cyclicality of prescribed fiscal policy, an expenditure rule is similar to a structural balance rule. If the EU decides to go beyond the current focus on fiscal aggregates, a two-rule system aimed at safeguarding specific expenditures could be placed at the centre of the EU fiscal framework. The key challenge is to define and measure the protected expenditures.