The expenditure benchmark is an indicator for the evolution of public expenditure introduced in 2011 in the already complex European fiscal rules framework, being a very specific application of an expenditure rule. However, it is a quite complex indicator and not suitable for the use at national level by the Independent Fiscal Institutions—that monitor compliance with national fiscal rules—as it relies on the European Commission’s data inputs and judgement not available in real time. This paper argues for more transparency and for a simplification of this indicator to reduce the reliance on non-observable variables. Such improvements are essential as most existing proposals to reform the European Union’s fiscal rules aim to use an expenditure rule as the operational fiscal rule, a role the expenditure benchmark as is cannot fulfil.

支出基准是 2011 年在已经复杂的欧洲财政规则框架中引入的公共支出演变的指标，是支出规则的非常具体的应用。然而，它是一个相当复杂的指标，不适合监测国家财政规则遵守情况的独立财政机构在国家层面使用，因为它依赖于欧盟委员会的数据输入和无法实时获得的判断。本文主张提高透明度并简化该指标，以减少对不可观察变量的依赖。这种改进是必不可少的，因为大多数现有的改革欧盟财政规则的提议旨在将支出规则用作可操作的财政规则，而支出基准无法发挥这一作用。