EU와 영국의 재정안정화 법제의 동향과 시사점 = Developments in Law and Regulation concerning Fiscal Stability in the European Union and the United Kingdom - With Particular Reference to the Stability and Growth Pact

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article reviews law and regulation concerning fiscal stability in the European Union and the United Kingdom with particular reference to the Stability and Growth Pact. After the discussion of the legal developments in Europe, this article compares the European system with the Korean fiscal law, and draws out some implications for the advancement of the Korean legal system for fiscal stability. The Stability and Growth Pact, SGP, provides legal foundations to coordinate and keep the spending and borrowings of Member Countries of European Monetary Union under European control mechanism to maintain fiscal soundness of the European Union. The SGP demands that all countries in the Eurozone should keep their annual budget deficit below 3% of GDP, and total public debt below 60% of GDP. In order to abide by the SGP, the United Kingdom adopted the Code for Fiscal Stability and stipulated legal basis for the Code and principles of fiscal management: transparency, stability, responsibility, fairness and efficiency. Although the Code was adopted by the Devolved Labor Administration, the new Coalition Government of the UK is expected to maintain the basic tenets of the Code and accelerate measures to reduce the amount of public deficit. Global economic and financial crisis did not evade Korea. Large amount of public investment was put to recover from the recession, which caused fiscal deficit and increase of public debt. Concerns were raised over fiscal soundness. Measures have been taken to maintain fiscal stability. Recent revisions of Korean Fiscal Act relating to the specification of grounds for economic long-term perspectives, fiscal planning and targets; submission of fiscal reports to the National Assembly can find their analogies in the UK Code for Fiscal Stability. The reforms considered in the Draft Fiscal Statistics Rules including transition from cash basis to accrual basis accounting, and the adoption of the concept of General Government look like learning form the UK practices. Lack of specific numerical targets on the public debt and fiscal deficit, and lack of specific rules concerning the fairness principle are common features in the UK Code and Korean fiscal rules. The Fiscal Responsibility Act of the UK indicates developments towards different direction. There are differences as well. Pre-Budget Report cannot find its equivalent in Korea. Lesser emphasis is paid to the principles of responsibility and fairness. The fiscal information open to the public is relatively limited in Korea. Borrowings by public companies are not fully reflected in the government debt report. The roles played by the Controller and Auditor General and the new Office for Budget Responsibility are interesting features to Korean observers. Principles of fiscal management in the UK guides the public financing irrespective of the changes of administrations. While the UK is to a large extent bound by the Stability and Growth Pact, Korea is not under any similar control. However, as a member of OECD and G20, Korea is expected to follow international standards of economic and fiscal policies. Therefore, Following steps are recommended: Scope of public debt should be widened to include certain public undertakings. Stronger scrutiny by the Bureau of Audit and Inspection is worth to be considered. Measures should be taken to make the review and control of the public spending by the National Assembly a material procedure. Compulsory reduction of budget spending in response to excessive deficit should be introduced. Normative value of the Korean fiscal rules should be enhanced in terms of specificity and level of law.