ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the contents of the fiscal consolidation measures undertaken by European governments. It provides a comparison between expenditure and revenue measures, subdivides these into subcategories, and briefly reviews them. This general overview is based on country studies, and on the highly informative OECD cross-country report on fiscal consolidation. The chapter pays particular attention to the expenditure cutbacks targeted at public administration, that is, operational spending cuts. It focuses on the cutback trends in the social security sector and, in particular, politically sensitive areas of pension systems, unemployment systems, social security benefits and the health sector. Pension-related cutbacks were applied in numerous countries, but the character of the cutbacks varied to a great extent. In addition to the general country overview and specific country examples, the chapter presents the quantitative results of the COCOPS survey of public sector executives.
