Prohloubení koordinace v oblasti fiskální politiky v rámci EU jako důsledek ekonomické krize

The dissertation analyses the evolution of EU integration project in fiscal policy area. It highlights primarily changes in Member States’ cooperation following the 2008 global economic crisis. Its main objective is to identify the consequences of post-crisis changes in fiscal coordination for the future of EU integration.A qualitative interdisciplinary analysis of fiscal policy coordination is based on the transaction cost politics by A.K. Dixit. North's institutional matrix allows for analyzing formal rules, in particular the legal framework, as well as informal constraints and enforcement characteristics. Despite post crisis efforts to strengthen the coordination of fiscal policies and to tighten the Stability and Growth Pact, a number of inefficiencies persist in the EU fiscal coordination. Unpredictable application of political and technocratic discretion weakens system stability and hinders mutual trust among the Member States. Alternative integration taking the form of Europeanisation of national fiscal institutions, together with the establishment of rescue mechanisms pooling Member States' limited amounts of budgetary resources at supranational level, confirm deepening of Member States' cooperation. Despite strengthened fiscal policy coordination, the eurozone remains only very limited fiscal union based on technical solutions. Financial assistance implies only temporary and conditional provision of funding rather than delegation of fiscal policy powers to supranational level. In the future, a more precise definition of conditionality attached to financial assistance and definition of its interaction with other EU policies could further stabilise the EU institutional set-up. The quantitative analysis confirmed different interaction of institutional, economic and political variables in the euro area and non-euro area countries before and after 2008. In the non-eurozone countries, national fiscal institutions played a statistically significant role in the pre-2008 period. Conversely, in the euro area countries national fiscal institutions play an important role post-2008. EU efforts aiming at convergence of national fiscal institutions might have increased their importance in the euro area countries and also their impact on the Member States' fiscal performance.