The Covid-19 pandemic and European integration : challenges and prospects for citizens, institutions, and the EU polity

Abstract

This review article discusses four books analyzing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on European integration and democratic politics in Europe. The four books focus, respectively, on the role of the corona crisis in the European Union’s overall development; legal and political challenges of ‘emergency politics’; the evolution of essential democratic principles; and the capacity (or not) of the EU to face the unprecedented crisis as a unified political actor. Against this background, the review article introduces points and patterns in EU crisis politics, contemporary EU policymaking, and EU theorization. The reviewed books offer a broad and nuanced picture of the strengths and weaknesses of European politics. They agree that important transformations, or at least smaller-scale changes, are happening. Yet, disagreements exist on which innovations and shifts will outlive the pandemic.