The NextGenerationEU instrument and the European Union new budget cycle

The EU’s most important initiatives to foster recovery after the pandemic are centred upon its budget. This article examines the scope and content of the NextGenerationEU (NGEU) instrument in general and the Recovery and Resilience Facility in particular, and its interaction with the EU budgetary framework for the coming seven-year period, focusing on two of its most important instruments: the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework and the Own Resources Decision.

Approval of NGEU represents a substantial change in EU funding and a deepening of European integration to a degree that, prior to the pandemic, Member States had considered unattainable.