The debate over how Europe should organise solidarity and jointly respond to the COVID induced economic crisis is in full force, with various proposals either agreed or at debate such as the use of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the creation of new common debt instruments or the mobilisation of the upcoming Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF). So far, however, the prime responses to the economic shock have been located at the national level, not only being proof of the fact that most firefighting is done at the level of Europe’s nation-states but also displaying the inequalities of fiscal capacity that still loom large in the EU’s political economy.
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