El nuevo marco presupuestario de la Unión Europea para la recuperación postpandemia

The European budget sits at the core of initiatives for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the European Union. The European recovery plan brings together areas that had evolved apart so far, such as economic policy coordination, European budgetary law, cohesion policy and the defence of rule of law. This study reviews and interlinks the pillars on which the European budget will be based in the on-going seven-year period. The scope of analysis of the new legal instruments adopted covers the Own Resources Decision, the European Recovery Instrument, the Multiannual Financial Framework, the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism and the Regulation on budget conditionality for the rule of law. The relaxation, due to the pandemic, of principles and limits that seemed immovable hitherto suggests progress and deepening in the European integration process, paving the way towards a fiscal union, a perspective that faces conflicting reactions and constitutional boundaries at the national level. Our findings show, however, that intergovernmental features predominate in the governance of the new budgetary framework, adding a cautionary note as to whether the supranational institutions that embody democratic control will be able to fulfill their function.