The Pandemic Recovery Revolution
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How the EU’s RRF plan changed the public investment paradigm
In this episode of The Sound of Economics, host Rebecca Christie speaks with Bruegel’s Zsolt Darvas and Debora Revoltella about the European Union’s unprecedented, joint-debt funded Recovery and Resilience Fund, paid for with the NextGenerationEU bond sales program. As the European Commission gets ready to make the program’s final disbursements, did the project work? How much of its promised funding was actually spent? Did countries meet the conditions they agreed were necessary to get EU money? What about Italy? As the EU heads into its next seven-year budget cycle, what lessons can we learn to make the common budget more responsive to national performance? The political battle between austerity and investment will continue, and the RRF offers valuable lessons for what to do next.
Related research:
- Christie, R., G. Claeys and P. Weil (2021) ‘Next Generation EU borrowing: a first assessment’, Policy Contribution 22/2021, Bruegel
- Darvas, Z., R. Dom, M. Lappe, P. Saint-Amans and A. Steinbach (2025) ‘Bigger, better funded and focused on public goods: how to revamp the European Union budget’, Blueprint, Bruegel
- Darvas, Z., L. Welslau and J. Zettelmeyer (2023) 'The EU Recovery and Resilience Facility falls short against performance-based funding standards', Analysis 08/2023, Bruegel
- Darvas, Z and L. Welslau (2023) ‘First lessons from the Recovery and Resilience Facility for the EU economic governance framework’, Analysis, Economic Governance and EMU Scrutiny Unit
- ‘EIB Investment Report 2025/2026’, Report, European Investment Bank
- Revoltella, D., T. Bending and A. Kolev (2022) ‘Recovery as a springboard for change’, Policy Brief No. 269, SUERF – The European Money and Finance Forum