Next Generation Eu: Legal Structure and Constitutional Consequences

Abstract

The article examines the legal structure and constitutional consequences of ‘Next Generation EU’ (NGEU)—the innovative recovery fund that the European Union (EU) established to address the socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article sheds light on the complex normative constellation that was used to erect NGEU, and explains how this was satisfactorily done within the existing Treaty framework, by resorting to current legal bases. At the same time, however, the article underlines the profound constitutional consequences that NGEU has on the EU's architecture of economic governance. To this end, the article contrasts the strategy chosen to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic to that embraced to tackle the euro-crisis a decade ago, and concludes emphasising how NGEU significantly contributes to the federalisation of the EU, endowing its fiscal union with a fiscal capacity analogous to that of other federal regimes.

NextGenerationEU and the European Semester: Comparing National Plans and Country‐Specific Recommendations

“…Even though scholarly work is inevitably slower in taking stock of what happened, legal and procedural analyses (De Witte, 2021;Fabbrini, 2022) have already explored the creative legal engineering involved in the adoption of NGEU and its potential contribution to the federalization of the EU, granting it a fiscal capacity akin to other federal systems. Other contributions have investigated the genesis of NGEU from a political point of view, illustrating how the different (intergovernmental and supranational) bodies have exerted influence in the process (Bressanelli & Quaglia, 2021).…”

Citizen participation in resilient society: historical insights and monitoring trends of the EU’s policy and institutions

“…In this context, a recent review of the European Union (EU) budgetary instruments for investing in citizens and consolidating social rights in the period 2021-2027 releases the most important financial contribution reaching almost EUR 99.3 billion for the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) (Regulation 2021/1057) as the fundamental implementing mechanism for the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and more than EUR 806.9 billion for the NextGenerationEU. In line with the EU's latest budgetary commitments to mobilize significant contributions for citizen participation and initiative, the cohesion, resilience and values policy direction marks the top two most important financial appeals within the EU budget for 2023 with EUR 426.7 billion by overlaying the mechanisms to empower and prioritize the citizens' initiative, participation and values (Theocharis & Van Deth, 2018;Fabbrini, 2022).…”