European Integration In The Constitutional Borderlands: The Nextgenerationeu Model And The Struggle For Europe's Future

The European Union now finds itself in a liminal space-a 'constitutional borderlands'-between its traditional role as a prodigious producer of regulatory norms and a nascent, yet incomplete, role that seeks to develop fiscal capacities to achieve its goals. The NextGenerationEU (NGEU) programme adopted in the wake of Covid is at the heart of this shift. It defined a new model of non-transparent, executive-technocratic governance that was then repurposed to address the many challenges of the Russian war on Ukraine as well as other pressing needs.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the design, implementation, and evolution of the NGEU model from its inception to today. It subjects the model's hidden mechanics to a critical examination, exposing the pivotal role of EU institutional legal advisers, operating behind closed doors, in facilitating revolutionary reinterpretations of the Treaties that effectively bypassed the democratic process to transform the nature of European governance. It shows that the advent of the NGEU model has had profound distributive and democratic consequences, shifting power toward executive and subordinate technocratic actors while sidelining parliamentary oversight and the involvement of other stakeholders. At the same time, the NGEU model created misaligned incentives, often prioritizing national spending envelopes over the production of genuine European public goods.

These 'emergency' measures are fast becoming the new normal. The core innovations of the NGEU model-national planning, performance-based financing, and enhanced Commission discretion-form core elements of the Commission's proposals for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2028-2034). This book warns that without a return to open democratic politics and constitutional deliberation, the EU's navigation of the borderlands in which it currently finds itself risks eroding legitimacy and creating a fragile system unable to meet future challenges.

Päivi Leino-Sandberg, Professor of Transnational European Law, University of Helsinki,Peter L. Lindseth, Olimpiad S. Ioffe Professor of International and Comparative Law, University of Connecticut School of Law

Päivi Leino-Sandberg is Professor of Transnational European Law, University of Helsinki, and Deputy Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights. She previously worked for 10 years as a legal adviser for the Finnish government and continues to advise the Parliament of Finland and other institutions. Her writings have appeared in leading journals and have been quoted by the EU Court and the German Federal Constitutional Court. She has won access to documents cases in EU Courts. She has held visiting positions e.g. at the EUI, NYU Law School, Humboldt University Berlin and iCourts in Copenhagen.

Peter L. Lindseth is the Olimpiad S. Ioffe Professor of International and Comparative Law, University of Connecticut School of Law, where he is also Director of Graduate, International, and Non-JD Programs. A legal scholar and historian, his work explores the evolution of governance structures and public law, particularly as they relate to European integration and the modern administrative state. His academic career began at Columbia Law School, and he has also held numerous visiting positions including at Yale Law School, Princeton, the French Conseil d'Etat, the American Academy in Berlin, the Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte, and other universities across Europe.