Abstract
The economic effects of the covid-19 pandemic have been devastating, placing major strains on the economic governance of the European Union (EU) and its member states. Confronted with these major challenges, the EU has adopted the ‘Next Generation EU’ funding programme worth €750 billion, the centrepiece of which is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which amounts to €672 billion in loans and grants to support economic reforms and investments in EU countries. In order to access this funding, EU member states have to submit National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs). Whereas most scholarly work has so far focused on the ‘EU level’ of post-pandemic institutional and policy changes, a systematic examination of the ‘domestic level’ is still at its infancy. The REPLAN-EU project sets out to contribute to this important debate by bringing together three research units led by three specialists in EU and national policy-making. By leveraging their respective expertise along the whole policy cycle, from the definition of the policy goals to their formal and substantial implementation, the project aims at shedding light on the domestic politics of the RRF. Specifically, our research objective is to develop a systematic comparative explanation of the political-economy factors that influence both the formulation and the formal and practical implementation of NRRPs. In doing so, the project will shed light on both the domestic politics of the Recovery and Resilience Facility and on its second-order effect on the relationship between member countries and European institutions. The insights of the REPLAN-EU project will be relevant for both policymakers and citizens, for whom NRRPs are often black boxes. To speak to both publics and achieve the highest impact, a wide range of dissemination tools will be used: academic articles, Op-eds to submit to newspapers, academic workshops as well as a dedicated website. Achieved results: The REPLAN-EU project has investigated the political economy factors influencing the formulation and implementation of National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) in Europe. Originally designed as a comparative study of Italy, France, and Germany, the research has expanded its scope by including Spain as a fourth qualitative case study and by conducting an extensive quantitative analysis covering all EU Member States. The project has yielded high-impact scholarly outputs, including five articles published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals (such as the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of European Social Policy), with additional manuscripts currently under review. Beyond academic publishing, the project launched a dedicated web platform and fostered public debate through briefing papers and international conferences. All activities were carried out in full compliance with the Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle and Open Access protocols, consolidating a fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration among the research units of Bologna, Florence, and Padua. The project has successfully met its objectives, as demonstrated by its outputs, particularly the publications. The REPLAN team has produced five published, peer-reviewed articles to date: An article comparing the formulation of National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Ø Borghetto, E., Quaglia, L., and Guardiancich, I. (2026) Reform Agendas in National Recovery and Resilience Plans: Partisan Politics and Domestic Usages of Europe. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 64: 75–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13738. v An article analyzing the impact of the NextGenerationEU (NGEU) program on the implementation of Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) across all member states Ø Guardiancich, I., Guidi, M., Borghetto, E., and Quaglia, L. (2025). Stronger conditionality for stronger compliance? Analysing the NGEU’s effect on the implementation of European semester recommendations. Journal of European Public Policy, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2025.2502088 v An article examining how Europeanization fosters policy liberalization despite varied adherence to these reforms across different welfare regimes Ø Guardiancich, I., and Borgognoni, E. (2025). The post-socialist neoliberal agenda through the prism of Europeanization in social and labour market policy. Journal of European Social Policy, 35(5), 471-485. https://doi.org/10.1177/09589287251331577 v An article investigating the impact of NGEU funding on party-based Euroscepticism in Italy. Ø Cabras L., Borghetto E., Quaglia L., Guardiancich I. (2025) ‘From Criticism to Pragmatism? The Impact of NGEU Funding on Party-Based Euroscepticism in Italy’, Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, doi:10.1017/ipo.2025.10077 v An introductory article to the special issue: “Show Me The Money!” The Changing Dynamics of Economic Governance in the European Union’ Ø Quaglia, L. and Christiansen, T. (2026) ‘Introduction to the special issue: “Show Me The Money!” The Changing Dynamics of Economic Governance in the European Union’, Journal of European Public Policy, https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2026.2658000 v Two additional articles are currently under preparation: Ø One article examining the impact of the NGEU on party-based Euroscepticism in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal Ø One article analyzing the implementation of CSRs both before and after the adoption of NGEU across all member states, v The project has a dedicated website https://www.replaneuresearch.eu/publications
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Lucia Quaglia
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali
Coordinatore:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Contributo totale di progetto: Euro (EUR) 166.600,00
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 79.468,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
28/09/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
