Taxation and Public Spending Policies in EU Economies

: The countries of the European Union have faced numerous changes in the last few years, starting with Brexit, the large influx of migrants, the economic impact of pandemic, and the current energy crisis, etc. All those changes directly affected public finances. To ensure their macroeconomic stability, the member countries of the Union adopted certain measures in the sphere of fiscal policy. The goal of the paper is to determine changes in the area of fiscal policy based on the analysis of the share of direct and indirect taxes, as well as the share of public spending in the gross domestic product of the European Union countries. The research refers to the time period 2015-2020 and it is based on the method of comparative analysis. The research results show that at the level of the EU27 average, there is a noticeable growth in the percent of direct taxes and public spending in the gross domestic product. Likewise, the results showed that the share of social benefits in the gross domestic product also increased. Such a trend can be interpreted as a response of fiscal policy to changes that negatively affect the social security of citizens, but also as a need to ensure the stability of public finances in the countries of the European Union.