The common response to COVID-19

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is a unique federal arrangement. Since its establishment as a fully fledged political system by the Treaty of Maastricht in the early 1990s, it combines functional, intergovernmental, and federal features. These features vary and fluctuate across policy areas and over time. EU bodies, above all the European Commission, have been affected by two factors: the “centralization of power induced by von der Leyen’s strong presidential approach to crisis management” and the powers of the European Central Bank. Because of these factors, the EU has achieved success in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the main human and economic costs of which in the EU federal system are summarized. The reaction has demonstrated the capacity of the supranational institutions to learn from their own mistakes made during the “polycrises” of the 2010s, and it might point to a steady de-crisisification of EU policymaking.