Governing Europe's Recovery and Resilience Facility: Between Discipline and Discretion

The EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) represents a bold integrationist step in European economic governance. Besides the size of the fiscal envelope, the novelty also lies in the new governance. Member states prepare integrated investment and reform plans and need to fulfil milestones...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Government and opposition (London) 2024-07, Vol.59 (3), p.718-734
Main Authors: Bokhorst, David, Corti, Francesco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic disciplines
Balance of power
Borrowing
Case studies
Centralization
COVID-19
Decision making
Governance
Investments
Legitimacy
Ownership
Pandemics
Parliaments
Policy implementation
Policy making
Recovery
Reforms
Resilience
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Summary:The EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) represents a bold integrationist step in European economic governance. Besides the size of the fiscal envelope, the novelty also lies in the new governance. Member states prepare integrated investment and reform plans and need to fulfil milestones and targets to access funding. This article assesses the balance of power in negotiating the plans and the effect on domestic policymaking. Based on five case studies, we show that the RRF has enhanced the steering capacity of the European Commission on reforms and investments, while member states remain ultimately in charge of the plans. Second, we argue that, while the RRF enhances the efficiency of the policymaking process and allows the fast-forwarding of reforms, it has also led to a contractualization of the relationship with the EU and a centralization of decision-making processes within member states. This latter aspect may hamper ownership and legitimacy in policy implementation.
ISSN:0017-257X
1477-7053
DOI:10.1017/gov.2023.14