OBSERVARE

Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 12, Nº. 2 (November 2021-April 2022)

160

THE EUROPEAN UNION'S RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE FUND, IN THE CONTEXT

OF THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROJECT AND ITS FUTURE PROSPECTS

FILIPE GUERRA

filipe.guerra@ua.pt

Jurist. Master's student in the course of Public Administration and Management and of PhD in

Public Policies, in the Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences of the University of

Aveiro (Portugal). Post-Graduate in Labour Law by the Institute of Labour and Company Law of

the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra and also holds a degree in Law from the Lusíada

University of Porto.

Abstract

Throughout its history, the process of European integration has been shaped by successive

stages of transfer of competences and powers from the Member States to the European Union

and its institutions. At the same time, and with progressively shorter latency periods, several

moments of crisis in the integration process were recorded. Of these crises, the financial crisis

that began in 2008 was of particular importance, demonstrating the difficulties in reaching

consensus and the fragmentation of interests within the European integration process.

This article aims to make a historical revisitation of several crisis moments in the European

integration process, with special attention to the past sovereign debt and Eurozone crises.

From this exposition, an argument is made about the susceptibility of fragmentation of

interests within the European Union, what are the causes and consequences of this

fragmentation and how this was reproduced throughout 2020 in the construction of the

Recovery and Resilience Fund, launched by the European Union in response to the crisis

triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, a diverse set of perspectives on the

Resilience and Recovery Fund and its relevance in the framework of the continuity of the

European integration process is presented.

Finally, we conclude that the European integration process is once again marked by the

strengthening of its political agenda and by recent signs of adaptation of the European Union

institutions to the management of constant crisis cycles, allowing the integration process to

continue.

Keywords

European Union, Resilience and Recovery Fund, Integration, Crisis, COVID-19.

How to cite this article

Guerra, Filipe (2021). The European Union’s recovery and resilience fund, in the context of

the European integration project and its future prospects. Janus.net, e-journal of international

relations. Vol12, Nº. 2, November 2021-April 2022. Consulted [online] on the date of the last

visit, https://doi.org/10.26619/1647-7251.12.2.10

Article received on March 31, 2021 and accepted for publication on September 7, 2021