The impact of overlapping crises on fiscal variables in some European Union member states

The European Union currently faces a confluence of unprecedented crises – COVID-19, the Ukraine war, the climate crisis, and the energy crisis. These crises significantly strain the fiscal stability of member states. By understanding how overlapping crises affect fiscal variables, countries can orient their long-term economic strategies. The research method used in my analysis is a comparative one, looking at the macroeconomic situation and public finances of EU member countries such as Croatia and Lithuania. For the analysis I used the Macroeconomic Stabilization Pentagon method which is considered to be the tool through which the equilibrium state of an economy can be observed. The economic indicators analyzed for the two European countries are Economic growth, Unemployment rate, Inflation rate, Budget balance and External balance of payments account. From the analysis of the two EU member countries, I could deduce that Croatia and Lithuania's Macro-stability Pentagon shows both differences and similarities. Moreover, the differences are determined by country-specific factors, such as economic structure or local fiscal policy. To add is the fact that both Croatia and Lithuania have their macroeconomic indicators affected by overlapping crises with a decrease in economic growth and an increase in unemployment in 2020.