When the Recovery and Resilience Facility hits home: EU crisis governance and recentralisation in federal and quasi-federal member states

This article examines whether the implementation of the RRF has contributed to a shift in decision-making powers from subnational authorities to central governments. To do so, it reconstructs the drafting and implementation of National Recovery and Resilience Plans in Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Spain, four federal or quasi-federal member states, and examines the multi-level implementation of reforms in childcare, eldercare, and vocational training. Although the findings show a heterogeneity of governance practices across the cases, including decentralised and centralised approaches, the latter predominate. The RRF’s strengthening of EU oversight does not automatically erode subnational authority, but it provides opportunities for central executives to recentralise competences. These opportunities are mediated by different domestic architectures of self-rule and shared rule, the latter aspect becoming pivotal to understand the effects of EU integration upon federal arrangements. More broadly, the article shows how EU performance-based financing can strengthen executive dominance within decentralised member states.