The Political Economy of the Legal Infrastructure Underpinning the EU Finances

The Financial Regulation of the European Union

European Union
PhD Project
Ongoing Project
This doctoral research project studies the politics of the legal infrastructure underpinning the European Union’s Public Finance, the Financial Regulation of the EU.
Author
Affiliation

UCLouvain, ISPOLE

Published

March 10, 2026

See the project original page on the Rebuilding Macroeconomics website: https://www.rebuildingmacroeconomics.ac.uk/academia-policy-pipeline

This doctoral research project studies the politics of the legal infrastructure underpinning the European Union’s Public Finance, the Financial Regulation of the EU. The doctoral project seeks to address two research questions: (i) How can the Financial Regulation create effects on EU public finances? (ii) What are the effects of the Financial Regulation on the integration EU Public Finances since 2012?

By treating the Financial Regulation of the EU as a toolbox-of-policy-instruments, it aims to understand how implementation provisions come to condition policies which they were supposed to put into motion. The research project will:

The research wishes to contribute to the debates over EU integration in the realm of public finances, inter-institutional bargaining, and the marketization of public sector budgeting. This research is built principally on semi-structured expert interviews analysed through qualitative thematic analysis.