Initial Ideas for Identifying a Euro-National Political Direction, from the Recovery and Resilience Facility to the Stability Pact

The article examines the Recovery and Resilience Facility as an act of general political direction and questions its nature and who is responsible for it. After an initial analysis of the concept of general political direction, the article analyses the characteristics of the Euro-national procedures institutionalized through the Facility. It then focuses on the patterns identifiable in a guidance that is shared between European and national institutions and that is distinctt from the mere sum of its parts. The second part of the article describes further proceedings — as the new European economic governance system — that draw inspiration from the Facility. It concludes that the emphasis on a shared political guidance holds constitutional significance, as it calls for a needed attention to the democratic balance involved.