Public debt developments in EU member states: challenges and solutions
Public debt developments in EU member states: challenges and solutions

Summary/Abstract: On the background of the global crisis, public debt rapidly accumulated in many countries, including from European Union. After an overview of these developments and of the specific factors that generated them, the paper aims to highlight the implications of increasing public debt levels, pointing out the particularities arising from the specific context of EU countries. Finally, the paper deals with the potential solutions suggested in the literature for reducing public debt levels and studies the possibilities for applying them in affected EU member states. Our main conclusion is that public debt is on an unsustainable path in many developed EU member states, which calls for important public debt reductions that could be acquired, in the absence of other viable solutions, mainly by promoting budget surpluses and redeeming public debt. Also, we suggest that the European legal framework should be reconsidered to ensure better public authorities’ compliance with the requirements of sound public finances.

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