B6455 - SEM.IL COORDINAMENTO EUROPEO DELLE FINANZE PUBBLICHE NAZIONALI E LA RIFORMA DEL PATTO DI STABILITA' E CRESCITA

Learning outcomes

The seminar is one of the educational activities of the Jean Monnet Chair “Public Finance Law and European Integration (PUBFINE).” The chair aims to raise awareness of the importance of public finance for effective European cohesion, as well as an understanding of supranational economic governance policies and the process of integration between national financial law and Euro-Union law. Specifically, the seminar aims to provide students with an in-depth knowledge around the evolution and recent reform of the European Stability and Growth Pact in order to better understand how it may affect the Italian public finance system and national fiscal policies in the near future. The seminar has a strong interdisciplinary connotation and will host contributions from professors from different scientific areas, from legal (tax and financial law, constitutional, administrative, European Union) to economics and political science. This is intended to offer students a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to the content and implications of the current public debate focused on the debt sustainability of European states.

Course contents

The seminar, from the perspective of public finance law, EU law and public law, and with reference to current political and institutional events, will address and explore issues related to European economic and financial governance.

It will deal, in particular, with the discipline of coordination of economic, fiscal and budgetary policies of EU Member States regulated by primary and secondary EU law and, in particular, the so-called European Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). Its recent reform in 2024, amid a significant transformation of geopolitical and macroeconomic scenarios after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the Russian-Ukrainian war that began in 2022, is going to shape national systems in new ways as well. The new SGP, together with the implementation of the European Union's extraordinary intervention program called Next Generation EU and the ECB monetary policy, are the instruments of EU governance of the economy that will be analyzed during the seminar.

The main topics that will be addressed in the seminar meetings are:

• Economic policy, budgetary policy, fiscal policy: legal and basic concepts
  
• European Treaty principles and European fiscal rules
  
• History and evolution of the SGP within the development framework of the Economic and monetary Union.
  
• The SGP after the 2024 reform: significance, relevance and future prospects
  
• The impact of the SGP reform on Italian law
  
• Interference and interrelationships between European monetary policy by the ECB and the coordination of national economic policies
  
• European public debt and the Next Generation EU: the construction of a European fiscal policy
  
• Dynamics of integration: conflict, fiscal competition and financial solidarity among states within the European Union
  

The lectures will begin in March 2024.

The detailed and complete schedule of meetings, with indication of classrooms and times , will be published in the section of virtual.unibo.it related to the seminar and on the special website dedicated to the Jean Monnet Chair “Public Finance Law and European Integration”: https://site.unibo.it/pubfine/it 

Readings/Bibliography

Reference readings, articles, slides and bibliographies for macro-topics or for single seminar meetings will be published in the seminar section of virtual.unibo.it.

some chapters of the volume “Lessons in European Public Finance Law ” (edited by A.Mondini, Wolters-Kluwer 2025, forthcoming) will be to be studied. The chapters to be studied will be indicated on virtual.unibo.it).

Teaching methods

The seminar will consist of approximately 8 meetings (face-to-face lectures) lasting 2 hours each, for a grand total of 16 hours, in March-April 2024.

The lectures will be conducted in presential mode with attendance recording, and attendance at all seminar meetings is recommended (minimum expected 65% for each student, 5 meetings).

The lectures will have an interdisciplinary and purely seminar-like focus: they will be taught and/or chaired by the Financial Law lecturer, holder of the course, and the participation of speakers (professors, scholars and experts) from other scientific disciplinary fields, both legal (EU Law, Constitutional Law, Public Law, Administrative Law, Tax Law, etc.) and economic and political sciences, from the University of Bologna or other universities/research centers, is expected. Discussion and discussion with students will be encouraged.

Assessment methods

Mode of oral examination

For students who have attended all 8 seminars, the final verification interview will focus exclusively on what was discussed in the seminar lectures. Lecture notes, slides and other materials will be provided via the virtual.unibo.it platform to prepare for the aptitude test

For students who have attended less than 8 seminars (without prejudice to the need to attend at least 5 seminars in order to take the exam), the final interview will focus on the topics covered in some chapters of the forthcoming volume “Lectures in European Public Finance Law” (edited by A.Mondini, Wolters-Kluwer 2025:

During the oral examination, candidates will be asked questions (usually three) based on notions and knowledge learned through attending lectures and critically reading study texts and teaching materials. Oral interview questions will cover the topics indicated in the “Program and Content” section. Preparation for the exam requires study of the materials and readings indicated in the “Texts/Bibliography” section and consultation of the main legislation referred to in the texts and during the lectures.

The questions aim to verify, among other things, whether the student has learned the notions related to the legal institutions studied, whether he/she is able to expound through correct legal reasoning the main issues concerning the topics of study, whether he/she has acquired the argumentation skills necessary for the interpretation of norms and for the analysis and solution of legal problems, and whether he/she is able to apply the acquired knowledge critically, also referring to the content of norms, case law and doctrine.

Special and facilitated forms of examination.

Special and facilitated forms of examination (at the student's option) are provided for those students who will have included in their study plan and attended in the a.y. 2024/2025 (minimum seminarattendance to be eligible for this facilitated mode: 6 out of 8 lectures):

- Both seminars of the Jean Monnet Chair “Public Finance Law and European Integration” (B6455 - SEM.THE EUROPEAN COORDINATION OF NATIONAL PUBLIC FINANCES AND THE REFORM OF THE STABILITY AND GROWTH PACT + B7609 - SEM. FISCAL SOVEREIGNTY AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION): the student will be able to take the aptitude test related to the two seminar activities jointly, in a single interview (5 questions) that will cover the topics addressed in both seminars (in case of passing, the individual activities will still be recorded separately). One of the questions given to the student may relate to a topic indicated by the student (choice question).

- The seminar B6455 - SEM.THE EUROPEAN COORDINATION OF NATIONAL PUBLIC FINANCES AND THE REFORM OF THE STABILITY AND GROWTH PACT of the Jean Monnet Chair “Public Finance Law and European Integration ” in conjunction with the teaching of FINANCIAL LAW (channel A-L or channel M-Z): the student may take the seminar's aptitude test in conjunction with the profit examination of the teaching of Financial Law. During the interview related to the seminar, one of the questions given to the student may relate to a topic indicated by the student (choice question).

- All teaching activities of the Jean Monnet Chair “Public Finance Law and European Integration” (B6455 - SEM.THE EUROPEAN COORDINATION OF NATIONAL PUBLIC FINANCES AND THE REFORM OF THE STABILITY AND GROWTH PACT + B7609 - SEM. FISCAL SOVEREIGNTY AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION + the teaching of FINANCIAL LAW [channel A-L or channel M-Z]): the student may take the seminar aptitude test jointly with the profit examination of the teaching of Financial Law, in a mixed mode. The student may submit a written paper, of a minimum of 25,000 characters, dealing with and exploring in depth a topic agreed with the lecturer in advance (and with a congruous time in relation to the appeal date in which the student intends to register, no less than 28 days in advance). The topic of the paper, agreed with the lecturer, should cover some of the topics covered in one of the two seminars B6455 and B7609. The paper should be submitted to the lecturer no later than eight days before the call. In case he/she opts for this mode of verification, the student, during the cumulative oral interview for the Financial Law teaching and for both seminars, will be questioned on the Financial Law syllabus, will expound the summary of the submitted paper (for one seminar), and will be asked oral questions only on the topics covered in the other seminar, for which he/she did not submit the paper.

Teaching tools

Any slides used during the seminar by lecturers will be posted on virtual.unibo.it, as well as short handouts, texts and materials and links to information databases on European public finance.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Mondini