Next Generation EU and Governance by Conditionality: A Transformation of the European Economic Constitution?

The adoption of Next Generation EU (NGEU) has revamped the use of conditionality tools in the EU. Although conditionality is not a new instrument under EU law, before the NGEU, and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) in particular, we had never witnessed the interplay and intertwinement of so many conditionality regimes at the same time. Such a development triggers significant questions as to the constitutional implications of the rise of conditionality in the EU internal governance. This Article aims at understanding the nature and the legal effects of conditionality, which so far remain unsettled. It first reviews the use of conditionality regimes in the EU and the types of conditionality mechanisms deployed. It then focuses on the multiple conditionality regimes in the NGEU and in particular in the RRF and analyses the design and the initial functioning of the thematic, the macroeconomic and the rule of law conditionality regimes. Finally, the reach and the limits of the effects of conditionality post-NGEU are assessed with a view to the EU budget and the European economic constitution.