Solidarity Put to the Test
Solidarity as a value has always underpinned the European integration project — in fact it is in its very DNA. That said, it is undeniable that solidarity has acquired new relevance in recent years and especially after the Covid-19 pandemic: as it is widely known, the European Union adopted, comparatively swiftly, new instruments aimed at supporting the economic recovery of Member States after the severe disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The NGEU project represents the first sizeable fiscal transfer from the EU to its Member States, creating true cross-border solidarity between European citizens
Amongst those, the most revolutionary is NextGenerationEU (NGEU): the EU issued bonds to then (re)distribute the proceeds to Member States in both loans and, crucially, non-repayable grants. NGEU thus represents the first sizeable fiscal transfer from the European Union to its Member States, underpinned by solidarity between the EU — which issued the bonds and administered loan and grants — and its Member States; and between the Member States themselves, which accepted to guarantee the NGEU bonds. In this way, for instance and to simplify somewhat, the Dutch taxpayer accepted liability for sums that have been awarded to the Italian state, thus creating true cross-border solidarity between citizens.
A Paradigm Shift in Addressing Common Challenges
But NGEU has also been the first step of a change of paradigm, which saw a progressive political acceptance that problems of a certain magnitude can be better addressed by the Union, and that, in order for solutions to be effective, a certain degree of solidarity might be required. This solidarity is justified not only having regard to our shared past and future, and to the existence of deeply intertwined economic and political interests. The combination of new geopolitical challenges, the war in Ukraine, the ensuing energy crisis, the change in the US trade and foreign policy, all concur in providing a more solid justification for redistributive schemes: yet, redistribution can only be justified if there is a perceived benefit for society, for European citizenry, as a whole.
European Public Goods
After all, as long as the EU lacks meaningful extraction capacity to finance its own budget, it is the citizens that engage in solidarity across the confines of the Member States. Whilst we had already seen some transnational solidarity through the operation of the free movement of workers and European Union citizenship provisions, NGEU is radically different in its ambition and scope. Based on this, we start seeing a lively debate about the need for the EU to deliver European public goods that, no matter where administered are of benefit for all European citizens. This is grounded in the belief that the level of interconnection among the different Member States justifies policies that are truly European in nature, such as measures to cushion citizens and industries from the energy crisis and achieve energetic autonomy (RePower EU), as well as measures to support and encourage Member States to increase, integrate and coordinate their defense industries (SAFE as well as Readiness 2030).
Solidarity Before the Court and Political Fragmentation
The “solidarity narrative” is becoming a powerful driver of the interpretation of the Court of Justice of the European Union: for instance, in April 2025 the Court clarified that Union citizenship is “one of the principal concrete expressions of solidarity which forms the very basis of the process of integration,” and that the principle of loyal cooperation means that Member States must refrain from enacting measures which might jeopardize the attainment of the EU’s objectives.
Political solidarity amongst Member States remains inconsistently attained, weakening the very raison d’être of the European Union.
This said, whereas a certain degree of economic solidarity has become more widely accepted and acceptable, political solidarity amongst Member States remains inconsistently attained and still driven by national(istic) considerations leading to a highly ineffective EU foreign policy: in this regard, contrast for instance the decision to issue bonds to finance a much needed loan to Ukraine, a decision which through legal gimmicks was adopted even though three Member States (Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) were opposed, to the lack of EU-wide solidarity towards the Kingdom of Denmark in relation to the territorial threats issued by the US administration in relation to Greenland. And this lack of political solidarity is weakening, perhaps beyond repair, the very raison d’etre of the European Union — the international rules-based order.
