| Title: |
The role of communication for EU independent fiscal institutions in times of escape clauses |
| Authors: |
Brinkman, Ebrien; Camilleri, Gilmour; Căpraru, Bogdan; Lucas Cole, Alexandre; Georgescu, Georgiana; Kalcheva, Desislava; Pappas, Anastasios; Rukšėnaitė, Jurga; The Network of Independent Fiscal Institutions |
| Contributors: |
The Network of Independent Fiscal Institutions |
| Publisher Information: |
Network of EU Independent Fiscal Institutions |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Collection: |
University of Malta: OAR@UM / L-Università ta' Malta |
| Subject Terms: |
Fiscal policy -- European Union countries; Independent regulatory commissions -- European Union countries; Communication in public administration -- European Union countries; Transparency (Ethics) in government -- European Union countries; Finance; Public -- Standards -- European Union countries; European Union countries -- Economic policy |
| Description: |
In recent years, communication has emerged as one of the defining characteristics of Independent Fiscal Institutions (IFIs), playing an increasingly important role in their activities. This study analyses the communication of 28 IFIs from 26 EU countries in the context of the activation of the general escape clause. Four main areas are examined: the state of communication; links between the communication characteristics of IFIs and their institutional aspects, as well as fiscal performance indicators; good practices; and IFIs’ recommendations. Data for the study were collected through a survey sent to IFIs in February 2025. ; The study considers institutional arrangements for communication in relation to four aspects: governance elements, research dissemination, research promotion and influence tracking. We find significant heterogeneity in IFIs' communication characteristics. However, EU IFIs largely follow similar communication practices in terms of dissemination and promotion. Most institutions use a combination of traditional and digital channels to target a variety of audiences with different types of content. They use different methods to evaluate the impact of their communication efforts, with the most common being media monitoring and website and social media analytics. ; We find that more intense communication requires greater human and financial resources and leads to better media visibility and public disclosure. By running several specifications using a two-step cluster analysis to check for associations between IFIs' communication features and some fiscal policy outcomes, we find that improved communication (certain characteristics of communication in force) was associated with better fiscal outcomes regardless of the period. Additionally, considering different combinations of IFIs' communication characteristics in relation to the deviation from the deficit rule and 10-year government bond yields for both periods (before and after 2020), our results show that the communication style changed from one ... |
| Document Type: |
report |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
The Network of Independent Fiscal Institutions. (2026). The Role of Communication for EU Independent Fiscal Institutions in Times of Escape Clauses. Working Paper Series 02/2026.; https://www.euifis.eu/publications/44; https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144685 |
| Availability: |
https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144685; https://www.euifis.eu/publications/44 |
| Rights: |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess ; The copyright of tis work belongs to the author(s)/publisher. The rights of this work are as defined by the appropriate Copyright Legislation or as modified by any successive legislation. Users may access this work and can make use of the information contained in accordance with the Copyright Legislation provided that the author must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the prior permission of the copyright holder. |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.FF7F79F2 |
| Database: |
BASE |