This event features a book presentation by Zbigniew Truchlewski (EUI Research Fellow), Ioana-Elena Oana (EUI Part-time Assistant Professor), Alexandru Moise (EUI Research Fellow), and Hanspeter Kriesi (EUI Part-time Professor).
Against all theoretical and empirical odds, the COVID-19 crisis has led to relatively successful policy responses in the European Union (EU), which have arguably contributed to its polity-building. Initially, this could not have been expected, as the EU and its member states once again reacted belatedly, and once they reacted, the member states resorted to the unilateral responses that we have known so well from earlier crises. Despite these inauspicious beginnings and despite the intense politicisation of the joint responses, the EU nevertheless got its act together in both key policy domains concerned by the crisis: it achieved a joint economic response (the NGEU fund), it launched a joint vaccination program, issued a joint Green Pass and laid the groundwork for a European Health Union.
Relying on the novel 'polity approach', this book shows how this was possible. To be sure, the nature of the crisis facilitated EU crisis management, given its sheer pressure and its symmetric incidence on all member states. Still, the way forward was not foreordained. The analysis shows that, remarkably, joint action became possible without building up a strong center. Thus, despite being relatively modest in size compared to the US, the EU’s macroeconomic response (e.g., NGEU, PEPP, SURE), in combination with the suspension of constraining fiscal and competition rules, has enabled member states to cope on their own, contrary to the Euro area crisis, when the EU clipped the wings of its constituents. New reinsurance-like arrangements have reinforced national capacities instead of substituting for them through a central federal budget.
The last part of the book sheds light on public support for these policies and whether the policies themselves created some solidaristic support. The answer is a qualified yes, and our evidence has unearthed a geography of solidarity in the European polity.
Agenda:
14:00 – 14:20 | Introduction and presentation of the book by Zbigniew Truchlewski, EUI RSC
14:20-14:40 | Discussant: Simon Hix, EUI SPS
14:40–14:55 | Comments by the co-authors: Ioana- Elena Oana, EUI SPS; Alexandru Moise, EUI SPS; Hanspeter Kriesi, EUI SPS.
14:55 –15:30 | Q&A with the audience
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