The Legal Architecture of the Economic Responses to COVID‐19: EMU beyond the Pandemic*

Abstract

AbstractThis article analyses from a law and policy perspectives the measures adopted by the European Union (EU) to address the devastating economic effects of COVID‐19, assessing their implications for Europe's economic and monetary union (EMU). The article first sets the background by exploring the main features of EMU before COVID‐19. Subsequently, it examines the multiplicity of policies deployed by the EU institutions to contain the socio‐economic damages of the pandemic – including, most crucially, the EU recovery fund "Next Generation EU" – and underlines their transformative effect on the EU architecture of economic governance. As the article argues, the responses to COVID‐19 have produced a significant rebalancing of EMU, bridging the asymmetry between EU monetary and economic policy. Finally, the article considers whether the COVID‐19‐related responses are likely to be only temporary, or rather a new normal for EMU, and sheds light on further constitutional adaptations which are needed to sustain this unprecedented transfer of fiscal power to the EU level.