Rosalba Famà

Rosalba Famà is a lawyer and in January 2025 she received a PhD summa cum laude in European Union law from Bocconi University. Her PhD dissertation focused on the EU budget following Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, and the principle of financial solidarity. She is a research fellow at the Bocconi Lab for European  Studies and teaching fellow in European Law at Bocconi University, where she has served as a tutor between 2021-2024. In 2023, her research on European finances earned the recognition of a grant offered by the European Court of Auditors. Rosalba has organized many international conferences, such as three consecutive editions of the Bocconi annual conference “Quo vadis, EU (law)?”. She is a speaker in multiple panels and workshops in several countries, and regularly disseminates her research in newspapers such as the Sole24Ore and L’Avvenire.

Rosalba is passionate about geopolitics and in this context she is a selected member of the Spinelli Forum, Italo-German Young Leaders Dialogue, a project created and sponsored by the Italian and German Foreign Affairs Ministries that boosts strategic dialogues between the Italian and German young generations as one of the objectives of the ‘German-Italian Action Plan for strategic bilateral cooperation and within the EU’. She is also an alumna of the ISPI Future Leader Programme, and currently she also teaches EU law and policy for ISPI, the Italian Institute for International Studies.

Beyond academia, Rosalba is committed to developing a culture of human fraternity, and she cooperates with the “Fratelli Tutti” Foundation for which she contributed to writing the “Vocabolary of Fraternity” and the book “Democracy: the challenge of fraternity”.

Contact: rf2893@nyu.edu

Research Project

The evolution of the principle of budgetary balance in the European Union following Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. The research will explore a critical transformation in the European Union’s financial architecture, focusing on the principle of budgetary balance in the wake of unprecedented financial interventions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Traditionally, the EU budget adhered to a strict interpretation of financial equilibrium, prohibiting deficit financing. However, the introduction of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) programme fundamentally challenges this long-standing principle. The study aims to critically examine the constitutional and legal implications of this shift, investigating how the EU’s financial mechanisms have evolved in response to extraordinary circumstances. By analyzing the NGEU programme, the research will explore how the EU has moved beyond its previous constraints, introducing innovative financial instruments that include non-repayable grants funded through common debt. Key research questions include the following ones:
  1. How has the normative scope of the EU’s budgetary balance principle changed?
  2. What are the legal and constitutional implications of these financial innovations?
  3. How do these changes interact with other EU principles like solidarity and financial stability?
The methodology combines legal analysis with historical and economic perspectives, drawing comparisons with fiscal federations and examining the implementation of budgetary constraints across EU member states. The research builds on my previous doctoral work on EU debt issuance, offering a unique lens into the institutional dimensions of financial policy. The project is particularly timely, coinciding with recommendations from the Draghi and Letta Reports, which emphasize the need for more flexible and strategic use of the EU budget. By investigating the constitutional ramifications of these financial transformations, the research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of EU integration and fiscal governance. Expected outcomes include a comprehensive working paper and a future monograph exploring the evolution of EU finances in the post-pandemic era, potentially providing insights into how supranational financial institutions can adapt to unprecedented challenges.