Plenary Roundtable – The EU and the Pandemic: Analytical Perspectives and Research Agendas

Abstract

As the SGEU meets virtually for the first time because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, how can we comprehend what has happened since early 2020? Borders were closed, a major Recovery Plan adopted, and the Commission negotiated with vaccines producers on behalf of the member states. This new test for the Union took place after a succession of “crises” in a context of internal and external tensions. In this roundtable, four leading scholars of the European Union will engage in a reflexive and prospective dialogue on EU policy developments since the start of the pandemic. What do EU responses to the trials of the last year tell us about the state of the Union? We ask them whether the handling of the pandemic challenges existing scholarly understandings of the EU, the heuristics of their own work and could thus influence the research agendas of EU studies.