An exploration of the democratic deficit stabilisation under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) program

Do public investments through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) reinforce democratic erosion in the European Union? The NGEU program stands out in formulating common objectives at the European common economic area level, the fiscal balancing role of the program during the twin transition, and the conditionality mechanisms associated with accessing available fiscal resources. To assess the possible effects of the political systems outcomes of the conditionality system of the new NGEU mechanism of EU-level fiscal redistribution, the research focuses on government stability and political majorities in failed democracies of the Eastern European part of the European Union. The research finds that the lack of political conditionality in the NGEU program and its RRF component can be associated with an unintended effect of reinforcing autocratic political messaging on the sustained attempts of external agenda-setting attempts, furthermore, through the fiscally stabilising effect of the NGEU’s RRF, democratically eroding political systems benefit by monetary stability that indicates governmental efficiency.