FEPS launches ‘Recovery Watch’, a new research project

The National Recovery and Resilience Plans represent the new framework in which member states will identify their development strategy and allocate European and national resources with the objective of relaunching socio-economic conditions after the pandemic.

This process, initiated as part of the European response to the global health crisis, follows the construction of the Next Generation EU and it is meant to combine national and European efforts to relaunch the economy and reshape it to steer the digital and climate transitions.

For European Progressives, it is worth assessing the potential that these national plans have towards curbing inequalities and delivering wellbeing for all. FEPS, in partnership with a network of organisations and research centres, plans on building up a structured network of experts to monitor the implementation of National Recovery Plans and assess their potential impact on key social outcomes.

The Recovery Watch, as a sort of observatory, with dedicated cross-country publications and experts’ inputs, shall provide an assessment of the social dimension of National Recovery Plans also including a check of the public spending on the digital and ecological transition.

In essence, the project shall monitor the distributive effects of EU spending via the Next Generation EU as well as those of the policies which compose the national recovery plans. This shall make available fact- and data-based evidence to sharpen the implementation of the national plans and instruct progressive policymaking from the local to the European level.