Learning from the Euro-crisis. A new method of government for the EU economic policy coordination after the pandemic?

Has the EU been able to learn from the experience of the Euro crisis to shape its economic response to the pandemic? This contribution is aimed at showing that an effective learning process was in fact set in motion in the aftermath of the pandemic emergency, although it is still incomplete. In order to address the economic consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak, and drawing on the past experience of the Euro-crisis, through Next Generation EU (NGEU) a new method of government has been forged. Grounded on a creative interpretative of the legal bases and characterized by a procedure that it is partly national and partly European and involving both domestic and supranational institutions, the governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) proceeds through the setting of EU-wide priorities, their articulation in national medium-term and performance-based plans, and a continuous monitoring process carried out by the Commission to ascertain the compliance with multiple conditionality regimes. The first two years of implementation of the RRF have proved successful not only for the use of the Fund by the Member States, but also for the spread of the RRF method of government in other areas of EU law, including the European Semester, RePowerEU, and the ongoing reform of the Stability and Growth Pact, despite the uncertainties surrounding the temporary nature of the instrument and some weaknesses in terms of democratic accountability.