Yesterday, Nuno Albuquerque de Matos successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis titled “Towards European Budgetary Union: Problems and Challenges since the 2007/2008 Financial Crisis in Comparative Institutional Perspective”.

Nuno defended his thesis before a panel of eight scholars from different universities: Fernando Ferreira Pinto (President | Vice-Rector); Federico Fabbrini (Discussant | Dublin City University); Catarina Santos Botelho (Discussant | Católica); António Frada de Sousa (Supervisor | Católica); João Nogueira de Almeida (Coimbra); Miguel Poiares Maduro (Católica); António Cortês (Católica); and Patrícia Fragoso Martins (Católica).

Nuno’s thesis analyses the economic and budgetary governance of the European Union, focusing on the bifurcation between centralised monetary policy and decentralised economic policies. It examines the evolution of the EU budget and the challenges arising from the 2007/2008 financial crisis, questioning the adequacy of current mechanisms and exploring the need for a budgetary union. The work further investigates issues of competence sharing, democratic accountability, and the role of legal frameworks and institutions, drawing comparisons with other federal systems like the United States and Germany to propose potential reforms, including direct EU taxation and a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism. The thesis ultimately argues for greater horizontal integration through citizen participation and a rebalancing of institutional powers to enhance the EU's economic and democratic foundations.

During his time as a student in our Global Ph.D. Programme in Law, Nuno did research stays at the European University Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and the Maastricht Centre for European Law.

For more information about our Global Ph.D. in Law, visit the programme page.