CEI-Iscte researcher Inês Marques Ribeiro, in collaboration with Maria Do Mar Faro, has published a new article in the Taylor & Francis journal European Politics and Society, focusing on the role of the European Commission in promoting solidarity amongst Member States during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Entitled ‘Fostering unity in crisis: the European Commission’s commitment to solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic’, the article analyses how the European Commission sought to promote and put into practice the principle of solidarity in a context characterised by initially fragmented national responses and the European Union’s limited competences in the field of health. The research is based on a qualitative analysis of 50 European Commission documents published in 2020, interpreted from a neo-functionalist perspective. The findings identify six recurring ways in which the Commission framed solidarity during the crisis: burden-sharing, cohesion, resilience, responsibility, knowledge-sharing, and global outreach.
The authors demonstrate that these different frameworks have helped to shape European policy instruments and guidelines, enabling the Commission to articulate and promote a practical understanding of solidarity, despite the fragmentation of national responses and the European Union’s limited powers.
The full article is available here.