Professor Raymond Torres, Director for Macroeconomy and International Analysis of think tank Funcas, discusses with Dr László Andor, FEPS Secretary General, the need for reinforcing economic governance and fiscal capacity in the European Union to ensure that we emerge stronger from the Covid-19 recession. This would require turning the tools of economic crisis response into permanent instruments, also to avoid the type of economic and social polarisation, including between North and South, which we experienced in the previous crisis. Professor Torres compares the European response with the one of the United States, that has appeared to be much more robust at least in the Spring of 2021. He also highlights the need for complementing the roll-out of Next Generation EU with a serious reform of the fiscal rules.