“Very Tight Control” - On (the Absence of) Member State Scrutiny of the EU’s Recovery Spending

Abstract

In 2020, at the height of the Covid crisis, the EU had its 'Hamiltonian Moment'. To overcome the pandemic's economic shock, Member States agreed to back an unprecedented, capital markets-based 750 billion Euro funding scheme to kickstart the European economy. However, since then, it proved surprisingly hard to make sense of where all the money went. Apparently, one main oversight body is a rather informal committee of Member States. Now, internal documents paint a picture of peer scrutiny that remains at a general level, is conducted under tight deadlines, and is strongly limited by scarce resources. They also reveal an evolution of the process to a point what looks much like a mere formality.

Keywords

• Europäische Union
• Europäische Union. Rat | Brüssel
• NextGenerationEU
• Pandemic
• Europäische Union. Rat | Brüssel