The COVID-19 pandemic and the European Union economy – counter-crisis instruments and implications for the EU budget and its Member States

Abstract

At the turn of 2019 and 2020 the world economy experienced a slowdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Negative repercussions of the measures taken, related to the slowdown in economic activity, have been experienced by all EU Member States. The article aims to present the influence of the pandemic on the EU economy and to identify the selected EU measures and instruments implemented to counteract the implications of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021–2027. The authors attempt to answer the following questions: (1) Will the actions taken by the European Commission and temporary state aid measures positively impact reducing the negative implications of the economic and social crisis caused by the pandemic? (2) Are the proposed instruments and their financing sources ensuring the recovery of the EU economy sufficient? The article puts forward a hypothesis that the prepared financial instruments implemented at the EU level should reduce the negative implications of the pandemic to some extent; however, close cooperation between the Member States and European institutions in terms of coordination of the implemented measures and instruments is necessary to render them more effectively. The authors utilise the descriptive, normative and diachronic methods. The analysis of the implemented remedial actions at the EU level and at the level of a Member State (Poland) leads to the conclusion that despite the economic crisis prevention measures introduced by the European Commission, the burden of counteracting the consequences of the epidemic rests mainly with the countries whose governments have introduced anti-crisis packages.