Maastricht criteria discipline in the EU member states

Abstract

Sustainable regional development and cohesion problems renew after the EU expansion, foremost due to the increasing inter-regional socio-economic differences in appreciation of both national and international levels. A particular problem is compliance with provisions of the EU Stability and Growth Pact and the Maastricht criteria with a view to entering the EMU. A debate about implementation of the Stability Pact under the conditions of the crisis became especially heated in 2008-2010. Presently, two directions are clearly visible and constitute double standards policy. In the old Member States of the EU (Germany, France, Great Britain), the overcoming of the crisis is linked with loosening of the fiscal policy, i.e., in aiming to promote economic growth and reduce unemployment, state expenditure is being increased and taxes are being reduced. In a number of weaker (Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy) and new EU Member States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), the EU fiscal policy reforms are being implemented during the crisis in an opposite manner – by increasing taxes and reducing the expenditure of the state budget. So far, it is not possible to claim that these countries are successful in combating the crisis and the economic decline.