Pandemics

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected the relationship between citizens and governments across the globe, and the EU is no exception. This unprecedented health crisis has led to a critical reassessment of the EU social contract, highlighting its vulnerabilities.

EXPRESS² will explore how the pandemic exposed the fragility of the EU’s foundational values, such as human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. WP10 analyses the legal and constitutional measures adopted in response to the pandemic, focusing on several fundamental legal questions raised by the Covid-19 health crisis and its governmental responses. In particular, the project will assess:

• Government responses and legal measures: How emergency measures impacted citizens' rights and constitutional principles like checks and balances.
• Trust in institutions: How the pandemic created uncertainty and undermined trust between citizens, governments, and the EU.
• Economic transformation: The pandemic's long-lasting effects on European economic governance and financial stability.

To this end, WP10 examines challenges that the pandemic has posed to the protection of human rights and fundamental liberties, constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers, and respect for democracy and the rule of law.

Through cutting-edge legal research and policy analysis, EXPRESS² will investigate how the pandemic reshaped the EU social contract and develop recommendations to strengthen it in future crises.