L'Unione europea e l'emergenza sanitaria da Covid-19

The aim of this paper is to assess whether, and to what extent, the EU legal system avails of the appropriate legislative instruments to deal with the economic depression resulting from Covid-19. To this end, it firstly offers an overview of the measures announced and/or adopted by the European institutions. Secondly, it analyses art. 122 TFEU which is the only relevant primary rule on the matter and – in general terms – SURE regulation. As regards the latter, it is shown that it is merely an “intermediate” action, yet not able to mitigate unemployment risks in the Union. Thirdly, it examines the possible use of the ESM. As far as this limb of analysis, the paper shows that, paradoxically, the only effective tool to sustain Member States in the pandemic is outside the EU legal system. Finally, it explains why the announced recovery fund would not be fully operational without the fiscal union.