Following the consultation of all interested parties, the College of Commissioners today formally appointed the Members of the European Fiscal Board.
Niels Thygesen was appointed as its Chairman. The other Members of the Board will be Roel Beetsma, Massimo Bordignon, Sandrine Duchêne and Mateusz Szczurek. Building on the Five Presidents' Reporton completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union, the Commission decidedlast October to set up a European Fiscal Board, as an independent advisory board on fiscal matters. The Board's role is to evaluate the implementation of EU fiscal rules, to advise the Commission on the fiscal stance appropriate for the euro area as a whole and to cooperate with Member States' national fiscal councils. Upon request, the Board would also provide ad-hoc advice on fiscal matters to the Commission.Today's announcement comes after a public call of interest and appropriate consultations with the European Central Bank, the Eurogroup Working Group and national fiscal councils. The Board is independent: the Members are not employees of the Commission and are committed to providing independent advice. The new advisory European Fiscal Board will start work shortly.
The Members of the board
Niels Thygesen (Chair, Denmark)
Niels Thygesen is Professor Emeritus of International Economics at the University of Copenhagen. He has had a long career in academia, coupled with numerous advisory functions for both governments and international institutions. Mr Thygesen has also worked for the Danish Government, Harvard's Development Advisory Service (in Malaysia), and the OECD in Paris. Among his many other positions, Mr Thygesen is the former adviser to the Governor of Danmarks Nationalbank, Chair of the Danish Economic Council and member of various expert groups on European monetary and financial integration – the subject area of most of his research and publications. Mr Thygesen was an independent member of the Delors Committee, which prepared the outline of the Economic and Monetary Union in Europe in 1988-89.
Roel Beetsma (The Netherlands)
Roel Beetsma is aProfessor at the University of Amsterdam and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business and Chairman of the Department of Economics and Econometrics. Prior visiting positions include the University of California at Berkeley, the University of British Columbia, and DELTA (Paris). He is a research fellow of several universities, advises national and international policy institutions on fiscal policy issues and has published much research on the European economic and fiscal governance framework.
Massimo Bordignon (Italy)
Massimo Bordignon isProfessor of Public Economics at the Catholic University of Milan, where he is also the Director of the Department of Economics and Finance, after having directed for several years the Graduate School in Economics and Finance of Public Administration. He has taught and lectured at numerous universities in Europe and acted as President of the Italian Society of Public Economists. Massimo Bordignon has worked as a consultant for several regional, national and international institutions, in particular the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund and the Italian Treasury.
Sandrine Duchêne (France)
Sandrine Duchêne is the General Secretary of AXA France in charge of audit and compliance. Until 2015, she worked as Deputy Director-General of the French Treasury, where she was also Chief Economist and Head of International Relations. In 2012-2013 she worked as Adviser to President Hollande on economic policy and public finance. Prior to that, she was Head of the Economic Forecasts Division at the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). She is an economist with a strong practical knowledge of the Stability and Growth Pact.
Mateusz Szczurek (Poland)
Mateusz Szczurek is former Finance Minister of Poland and is teaching public finance and international economics at Warsaw University. He is also Associate Director, Lead Regional Economist in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, monitoring structural reforms and policy dialogue in Central Europe and the Baltics region. He was previously Chief Economist of ING Poland and Chief Economist of ING Group for Central Europe and Eastern Europe. He studied at the University of Warsaw and the University of Sussex, where he obtained a PhD. He brings policymaking and practitioner's experience with a fresh perspective to the overall fiscal framework.
Bron: European Commission
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