The EU’s fiscal rules, which state that governments should run budget deficits no higher than 3% of GDP and maintain a public debt no higher than 60% of GDP, have been suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic and there are now growing calls for them to be reformed or abandoned altogether. Drawing on a new study, Frédéric Mérand documents how Jean-Claude Juncker, Pierre Moscovici and other figures within the European Commission laid the groundwork for this paradigm shift in EU fiscal governance