The Good National Judge: How Justice Reforms under the Conditionality of NextGenerationEU may Affect Consumer Protection Enforcement

NextGeneration EU promises a departure from the type of response towards the previous sovereign debt crisis, promising a qualitative change. Yet, the current economic climate, characterised by the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employment, the rise of the cost of living due to inflation, and high lending interest rates, brings once more into play issues of private debt recovery. Against this background justice reforms including, judicial efficiency and insolvency frameworks have been prioritised by the 2021 Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy. It is thus no surprise that they also appear in the National Recovery and Resilient Plans of the Member States with the highest indebted private sector. This Article examines to what extent the push for justice forms is stained by the goal of financial stability and is path-dependant, leading to negative effects on the enforcement of EU consumer protection by national courts.