European Union and the Lesson of the Euro-Crisis Law

Europe has become a space marked by differences between socio-economic systems, moving away from the idea of equality as an essential perspective. The austerity measures taken on the basis of the Stability Mechanism have led to a nonstop deterioration in access to social security and protection of fundamental rights for European citizens. This article brings attention back to the euro-crisis law of the past decade in order to understand whether there is continuity between the two crisis legal managements – the financial and the pandemic crisis – and whether they are both marked by the logic of conditionality. The question is if the pandemic crisis has really led the EU to reconsider the adequacy of its fiscal surveillance regime and to review the obligation to public spending cuts that have taken away funds from Welfare (schools, health, universities and research, etc.), leading to the violation of a number of fundamental rights.