Comments on the Five Presidents’ Report, ‘Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union’

In March 2015, following an invitation from the European Commission, the IIEA Economic Governance Group made a submission on the Analytical Note, Preparing for Next Steps on Better Economic Governance in the Euro Area of 12 February 2015. Subsequently, the Five Presidents’ Report, Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union was published on 22 June 2015. This paper examines which elements of the IIEA Economic Governance Group’s previous submission were adopted in the report as well as evaluating the proposals in the report.

The IIEA Economic Governance Group is a high level working group, which analyses the continuing reform of Europe’s economic governance architecture and publishes analytical papers detailing the implications of reforms for Ireland and Europe. The group has published seven papers to date, available here. The themes for 2015 include the EU Commission’s 2015 Draft Budgetary Plans; changes to the European Semester; the EU Commission’s proposed Investment Plan; assessment of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council; the monetary policy being pursued by the European Central Bank and the Europe 2020 Strategy mid-term review.