New Challenges to EU Solidarity. The Expansion of Conditionality in EU Post-Crisis Funding Policies

This chapter examines the complex relation between conditionality and solidarity in EU post-crisis funding policies. In particular, it deals with the question of whether and to what extent the recent expansion of spending conditionality conflicts with the pursuit of the solidarity objectives traditionally served by the expenditure side of the EU budget in accordance with the Treaties. To this end, it first traces the emergence and expansion of spending conditionality in the normative framework of EU funding policies. In a second stage, it unravels the multifaceted relations between conditionality and solidarity in this field, focusing first on the nature and degree of solidarity conveyed through the EU budget and turning then to the analysis of how spending conditionality interacts with it.