The Great Recession has revealed, firstly, that fiscal stabilising instruments remain essential and, secondly, that these must be set up at eurozone level, given their limitations at national level. It is the absence of such stabilising instruments that accounts in part for the severity of the austerity policies applied in some countries. The creation of this European stabilising instrument is a priority issue, after the experience to the Great Recession, and its implementation could be a very significant first step towards a genuine fiscal union.