15.- "Tackling the COVID-19 crisis: moving forwards towards European integration"

The response to the COVID-19 crisis may mark aqualitatively significant step towards accelerating the process of European integration. The battle is obviously not yet over and several obstacles still lay ahead. However, while the EU’s response to the turmoil caused by the Great Recession initially led to a step backwards, the response to the COVID-19 crisis is encouraging. As we have seen, it has paved the way for considerable progress towards fiscal union, with respect to the three pillars on which such a union is based: an EU budge tworthy of the name, a set of resources obtained directly in the form of taxes paid by citizens, and a treasury with the power to issue debt. The EU’s response to the pandemic may also facilitate a step towards the capital markets union, in so far as a new incontestable safeasset will come into circulation,in the form of bonds issued by the Commission. It also reinforces the role of the Commission and the Parliament, to the detriment of intergovernmental agreements. Most importantly, the EU’s response constitutes an unequivocal demonstration of the will to face adversities collectively.