Recent Trends and Ambiguities of Conditionality as an Instrument of the EU Internal Governance

The chapter reconstructs and assesses the ambiguous use of conditionality by the EU considering the rule of law both as a policy objective and as a standard of conduct in the allocation of funding. It starts with an overview of the pros and cons of conditional spending and engages with the evolution of conditionality as an instrument of EU governance. It then analyses the use of conditionality during the Eurozone crisis as a critical turning point from the rule of law perspective. The chapter considers the NGEU package as the “game changer” in EU conditional spending and analyses conditional spending and EU funds instrumental to safeguard the rule of law as important, yet often neglected, tools to combat the rule of law backsliding, in particular the Charter enabling condition under the 2021 Common Provisions Regulation. The chapter concludes on these recent trends and on the EU’s inconsistent approach to conditionality as an instrument to support the rule of law.