Solidarity has been consistently the cornerstone of prevailing narratives about the continent’s unification. From Schuman’s solidarité de fait (de facto solidarity) until today’s Commission President von der Leyen, who made solidarity the buzzword underpinning the measures taken by the European Union (EU) to tackle the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, European elites have repeatedly legitimised further steps on the path of integration through the notion that centralisation was generating more prosperity for all instead of war, disunion and socio-economic stagnation. The idea that supranational institutions and policies were unilaterally vectors of pan-European solidarity has nevertheless proved contentious.1 This is especially true when considering solidarity in terms of social justice and welfare shared equally among all Europeans regardless of their country of origin.