The Big Shift in EU Budgetary Rules

Bocconi PhD candidate Rosalba Famà has won a research grant by the European Court of Auditors and the European University Institute in Florence as part of a program started in 2007 and aimed at early-career researchers in the field of the EU public finances and policies.

Rosalba Famà's successful bid deals with the "Constitutional implications of the paradigm shift in the European budgetary galaxy after Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine". Recent shocks have in fact led to a redesign of the EU's debt architecture with the adoption of Next Generation EU. Until a few years ago, the preferred approach was the so-called "back-to-back" funding, whereby the Commission issued bonds and transfered the proceeds directly to the beneficiary country on the same terms that it received.

The unprecedented scale of funding - up to 750bn euro - needed to recover from the unusually difficult economic circumstances required not just a new funding policy but also significant adaptations in the relevant EU legal framework, as non-repayable contributions funded by joint debt have been issued for the first time.

The grant will cover Rosalba's research activity both in Luxembourg and in Fiesole (near Florence), where the European University Institute houses the European Historical Archives.