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Find out more about our long-standing initiatives to enhance shared understanding of the key issues affecting public finances in Europe.

Sustainable public finances and government accounting in Europe

ICAEW and PwC have been working together to encourage greater focus on the sustainability of public finances in Europe and the critical link to government accounting − with a view to highlighting the pressing need for EU reform in this area. Our 2019 joint publication brings together a number of independent essays, providing different perspectives on a broad range of sustainable public finance and related issues. It then sets our call for EU reform of government accounting as a matter of priority.

ICAEW – PwC sustainable public finances: EU perspectives

Since 2013, our joint ICAEW-PwC discussion series on Sustainable public finances: EU perspectives, has brought together experts from a wide range of international, European and national organisations, encompassing both public and private sectors, civil society and academia to explore the most critical themes in public finances and how they relate to each other. In addition to publishing synopses of the discussions, we have also published several related reports.

The future of EU public sector accounting in a global context

With discussion on how to achieve reform of public sector accounting across Europe still ongoing, we continue to press for a broad consensus among both public and private sector stakeholders to assist the reform, building also on the vision and key policy recommendations we set out in 2017.

Intergenerational fairness

Ensuring intergenerational fairness is a critical challenge facing policy-makers today. Citizens are increasingly worried that their children may end up worse off than their parents, challenging a key premise that has long underpinned societies: that each successive generation would become better off than the previous. Long-standing demographic and economic trends, now heightened in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, raise pressing questions on Europe’s future financial sustainability and the fair distribution of resources between generations.

Guest blogs on intergenerational fairness

To encourage new thinking on how we tackle issues of intergenerational fairness, in 2019 we asked a range of senior policy-makers and experts from Europe and beyond to share their perspectives on the issue.

Intergenerational fairness: a survey of citizens in 10 European countries

This survey provides a unique picture of the views of 10,000 Europeans on intergenerational fairness. Carried out in mid-2017, the survey explores whether Europeans feel that their respective generations are being treated fairly by government and whether they trust their governments are taking account of the longer-term financial impact of key policy choices.