Reconsidering to Fiscal Rules in European Union: Six-Pack and Evaluation of Turkey

Although the EU has financial rules stipulated in the Maastricht Criteria, the 2008 global financial crisis had a negative impact on the financial performance of EU countries with reference to fiscal rules. Some EU member countries have slacked their fiscal policies, had budget deficit and postponed their fiscal rule policies to cope with global financial crisis. The fiscal rule is revived to establish fiscal discipline in EU member countries aftermath of financial crisis in Greece. Furthermore, the enormous levels of budget deficits in Portugal, Spain and Italian economies contributed the revival of discussions on harmonization to Maastricht Criteria. The EU Commission proposed a Six-Pack Application to effective co-ordination and monitoring of economic policies, on September 29th, 2010. The European Council approved the Six-Pack on October 4th, 2011, aiming to co-ordinate the economic policies of EU countries with reference to European Semester application. This paper aims to discuss the functionality and effectiveness of the Six-Pack Application and evaluate Turkey’s financial indicators with reference to the Six-Pack Application.