THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF REGIME THEORY

The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on integration processes in the European Union. The author highlights the most important cases within the framework of this problem. They allow to identify the unifying and separating factors of the common European policy in the context of the collective fight against COVID-19. The theory of international regimes is proposed as the theoretical basis of the article. The behavior of the EU during covid and the post-covid period is taken as the studied regime. Its postulates made it possible at the initial stage to track the norms, principles, and methods of combating the threat adopted at the supranational level and at the subsequent stages to analyze the effectiveness of measures and their nature. In this regard, the main objectives of the study include: an analysis of the correlation of the theory of international regimes with the structural policy of the EU in times of crisis, as well as the identification of neoliberal and neorealist trends in the behavioral model of the EU. The methodological basis of the study includes a comparative analysis, which involves the identification of three main elements of the theory of international regimes and the implementation of practical cases of the EU behavioral model within them. The results of the study are presented in the form of conclusions regarding which of the selected practical cases fall under the category of neoliberal functional theory of international regimes, and which under the neorealist. The conclusion also outlines the arguments that speak of the COVID-19 pandemic as a divisive factor in European integration. The scientific significance of the study is to expand the evidence base of the theory of political regimes by presenting the EU’s efforts to combat the pandemic as a separate regime. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.