The Evolving Role of the EU in the Multilateral Global Financial Governance in the Face of the Pandemic

Multilateral global financial governance long before the COVID-19 pandemic required reforms to keep pace with the changing dynamics of the global economy. The pandemic only highlighted the extent of its weaknesses. Since the onset of the pandemic functioning of international financial institutions (IFIs) has been oriented towards achieving two major goals. On the one hand, it was a continuation of earlier initiatives aimed at ensuring an appropriate level of regulation and stability of international finance. On the other, the efforts of IFIs were directed at maximizing funds needed for mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, inclusive multilateral COVID-19 vaccine funding (e.g., COVAX). As one of the biggest threats to the stability of the global financial system caused by the constitute rising levels of sovereign debt, another set of IFIs activities included debt relief and debt cancelation programs, especially for the low-income countries. The European Union (EU) as a global actor enmeshed in the current complex and multilevel global financial governance structures has found itself at the core of these actions. In the case of the EU, the need to intervene at the global to transform and adapt IFIs actions in the face of the more and more volatile and uncertain international environment comes together with the need to counteract its steadily declining status in the structures of global financial governance. The paper seeks to assess the evolving role of the EU institutions in the governance of global finance in the face of the pandemic. It investigates the EU's ability to transform and adapt its actions in line with the global actions taken by selected IFIs (IMF, World Bank Group, FSB, BIS). The paper argues that during the pandemic the EU has proved its commitment to establish more efficient and inclusive governance of global finance on a multilateral and multipolar basis. The analysis in the paper is situated within the broader context of global financial governance reform with special reference to the issues of greater inclusion in global financial governance and the preservation of its multilateral character.