The EU’s Transactional Approach to Rule of Law Spending Conditionality in the 2020s

Abstract

Rule of law spending conditionality marks a turn in the EU’s strategy in the 2020s. The entry of this value into the budgetary sphere represents an economization process, creating room for the development of a transactional approach to rule of law compliance. This article defines this conceptual framework and examines the extent of its application through the case study of three budgetary instruments used during the 2021–2027 cycle: the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation and the horizontal enabling condition of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Contributing to the recent Europeanization literature, it also emphasizes the change in European governance and in the EU–Member State relationship triggered by the new conditionality culture following the succession of European crises, moving from a traditional politico‐legal enforcement model to a transactional one.