Figure 3 - Number of numerical fiscal rules in force in the EU Member States0102030405060701990 1995 2000 2005Number of rules in forceLocal government
Regional government
Social Security
Central government
General governmentSource: Commission services.There has been an interesting evolution in terms of the government sub-sectors covered by numerical
fiscal rules. In the early nineties, most numerical fiscal rules were applied at local or regional levels of
government. This reflected the willingness of higher levels of government to impose constraints on local
entities and the need to ensure sufficient coordination among general government tiers. Such rules
continued to develop in the 90s and exist today in almost all EU Member States. A large and increasing
number of numerical fiscal rules are found at the central government level. A relatively recent feature is
the introduction of numerical fiscal rules in the social security sector and rules covering the whole of the
general government sector. This may be a response to the increasing spending pressures in the social
security sector and to the introduction of the EU fiscal rules, which impose requirements for the general
government deficit and debt.
Distribution of the various types of numerical fiscal rules by fiscal aggregate
More than one third of the numerical rules in force in the EU Member States are budget balance rules
(including golden rules) whereas expenditure and debt rules each represent about 25 percent of the total
rules. Revenue rules account for less than 10 percent. Most of budget balance and debt rules are applied
to regional and local governments and, to a lesser extent, to the central government. In contrast,
expenditure rules are more frequent in the central government and social security sub-sectors^16.
(^16) In the following graphs, the total number of fiscal rules does not always coincide since some replays did not answer all
the questions included in the survey.