Resumen de The Next Generation EU: Opportunity and risk
The COVID-19 crisis has dealt a further blow to EU convergence. At the same time, it offers a unique opportunity for a new policy approach. Next Generation EU (NGEU) is the flagship EU crisis innovation response programme. For some it constitutes a fundamental step towards a federal union.
The NGEU offers investment and reform potential, but is not free from ambiguity in its recovery and transformation objectives. If successfully implemented, above all in southern European countries, it may pave the way towards a fiscal and political union. Conversely, failure could render further EU solidarity politically unpalatable and threaten the eurozone’s integrity.
The Spanish plan illustrates the dilemmas of this risky experiment. More accent is placed on the regularity of financial execution of the NGEU funds than on efficiency and effectiveness, the benchmarks on which are left unspecified.
This begs the question of whether, given limited resources, the capacity exists to monitor implementation, both in Spain and in the Commission.
