In the Corona-crisis will repeat in the EU, a familiar political pattern:
1.) If it goes wrong, then the European Union is fundamentally to blame.
2.) If something works, decorate the governments of the member States with the springs.
The EU Commission in Brussels is trying to coordinate the responses to the Corona pandemic. They are, in health, in disease control and in the control of borders, lack of skills. You can only act, if the member States agree, and your orders.
in view of the dramatic developments in each member state acted for itself, which is understandable. The governments, the private citizens are, of course, the next.
There were fast and uncoordinated closed the borders, supply chains interrupted or the Export of protective masks is prohibited. The EU as a Whole was only required then, to order the Chaos and to limit the total European damage.
Just unthinkable, is now possible
In this role, the EU Commission is now under your President Ursula von der Leyen. She does everything to convey the impression that you leave with the Corona-crisis will not get to you and have a solidary answers to the unprecedented challenges of Europe.
Von der Leyen, stands out as a crisis Manager. A thankless task, and four weeks ago is still unthinkable task. Because your ability to really decide something themselves, and quickly, are limited. You can not open a turnpike or lower to buy alone medical devices and distribute.
So von der Leyen pressure through a series of public proposals to border control, to financial instruments, to unemployment insurance, the task of the debt limits. The governments of the member States, much else remains, as the Commission’s proposals to adopt.
The sometimes unwieldy EU, the apparatus of the President has switched entirely to crisis management. What takes usually takes weeks or months is now completed in hours. Taboos fall to the ground is the same.
However, some important things forgotten: The Erosion of the rule of law in Hungary and Poland continues with impunity. The migration policy is hidden, the climate is adjourned.
Corona is all subordinate to, the President of the Commission, which is only four months in office, has need to realize that Corona is the Test case for the EU. ‘To be or not to be’ is here, according to Shakespeare, the question for the States and the Federal government.
“We have looked into the abyss,” said von der Leyen, on the state of the Union a week ago. You have it now in Hand, the EU is a meaning and a role in the crisis solution.
the Old certainties are gone
In only three weeks, the Coronavirus has destroyed many of the positive certainties in the EU, which were built in the decades before.
The internal market is not disturbed, the Schengen Zone to work, the monetary Union is put to the test, even the Erasmus exchange programme for students there are.
rebuilding as a new opportunity for the EU
so What is the purpose of the EU to the Corona? The answer of the EU Commission: reconstruction. To do this, you will need to reinvent themselves or go under.
Commission President von der Leyen puts on the Former, and announces a “Marshall Plan”, a complete renovation of the common EU budget.
This is brave, because if it goes wrong, it’s your fault. If it goes well, the heads of state and government with the feathers to decorate. See above.
Without a common financing of the crisis, it is not a
The hardness test for the EU will come next week. Then, it must be decided how the huge sums of money will be need to be funded by Italy, Spain, France but also in Germany, in order to survive the coma of their economies.
Whether these instruments are now “hot Corona-Bonds” or not, is not only a question of the political marketing of the substance. It is clear that the financing must be done, otherwise the EU is at the end. The abyss, in the Ursula von der Leyen has looked, is still very close.
author: Bernd Riegert
In Nicaragua, will be played in spite of Corona’s still football, because the Association does not want to stop Omnisport In Nicaragua will be played in spite of Corona’s still football, because the Association does not want to stop
*The post “The Corona-crisis as a litmus test for the EU” published by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.
Deutsche Welle
