FISCAL RULES AS ONE OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF FISCAL POLICY

For many years now, fiscal policy, based on certain rules, has become an alternative for the discretionary activities implemented by public authorities. Changes made in public finance are supplemented through the introduction of fiscal rules, the strengthening of their role and the creation of independent financial institutions. The basic objective of fiscal rules is the enhancement of public finance discipline, in particular, where it comes to its excessive relaxation. Nowadays, these rules match the characteristics of the transparent fiscal policy. However, it is worth emphasising that attaching normative nature to fiscal rules does not always result in the desired outcomes. Reduction of the effectiveness of fiscal rules may arise out of numerous reasons. The fiscal rules that are functioning both at the domestic and the supranational level should constitute an element that supports the implementation of the economic programme of particular governments. The main objective of this paper is the presentation of fiscal rules as instruments of the institutional environment of fiscal policy, which function at both the domestic and the supranational level within the EU member states, and the discussion on selected domestic fiscal rules implemented in Poland.