Published on 29 January 2021
This is the paper in which I explored the misuse by the EU of Article 122 in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in order, in this case, to bypass the normal budget process and set up the coronavirus recovery fund, euphemistically re-named as Next Generation EU.
The powers the EU is discussing arrogating to itself now regarding the dispute over coronavirus vaccine supplies also have their basis in Article 122, which the EU appears to regard as a catch-all Enabling Act, authorising them to bypass whatever processes of their own and the legal rights of citizens and businesses, as soon as an eventuality occurs that they deem unilaterally to be an emergency.