Details of Research Outputs

The COVID-19 crisis has clearly hit the European Union (EU) hard, and at its very heart: member states’ governments have struggled to prepare and respond, while the whole regional block has lacked the coordinated action that would be expected of a cohesive, established and ambitious supra-governmental organisation. The present article investigates the impact of the pandemic on the political economy of the EU, reviewing some estimates of both the scope and depth of an economic downturn that bears a close resemblance the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. This timely analysis focuses, in particular, on Italy and Spain: flailing economies already registering stuttering growth and mounting public debt when the Coronavirus entered their borders in early 2020. Concerted solutions are available but require a convergence of intentions which are traditionally hard to come by, in a regional context marked by increasing diversity of economic performances. Further, the public health crisis posed by COVID-19 has brought out fissures in the integration process of Europe between low and high-performing economies.