Revamping Policy Governance in Austria: The EU’s Impact 25 Years On

Abstract

This contribution reviews some economic governance aspects of the EU’s 1995 enlargement. The focus is on selected fields of internal market pertinence in Austria compared with Finland and Sweden. The analysis starts with an overview of Austria’s initial position and reviews the instruments of EU economic governance at the time, including fiscal rules and instruments. The central part of the paper is devoted to the adjustments required to comply with the gradual completion and refinement of the internal market. Special attention is given to competition policy and public procurement. Overall, economic governance in Austria was significantly “modernised” in the course of approaching and implementing EU membership. Although this contributed to a sustained improvement in competitiveness, Austria was in many respects lagging behind the comparative performances of Finland and Sweden.

Keywords: Economic and fiscal governance, internal market, competition policy, public procurement, network industries, competitiveness

JEL Classification: F15, H11, H60, K21, K23, L16