Reflections on the Legal Content of Solidarity in EU Law Under the Lens of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The variable expressions solidarity acquires in the EU legal order make it an amorphous concept from a strict legal perspective. Against this backdrop, this chapter focuses on the role played by solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic by revealing the need of urgent as well as long-lasting political, health and economic strategic choices at national and supranational level. Indeed, once it was evident that the health emergency not only was exogenous but also symmetric and extended to the whole EU, the approach changed. The necessity to tackle it with a more cooperative and ‘one voice’ strategy emerged. New opportunities of assistance both at operational and financial level were materialised by the enhancement of existing structures and the creation of new instruments of response in situations of emergency. Ultimately, the response to the Covid-19 has confirmed the interaction between solidarity and other concepts, like that of conditionality, thus entailing, rather than obligations to solidarity, a collective responsibility of solidarity in order to comply with the principle of equality as intended in EU law.