The European Union is a political long shot of an experiment that has survived all manner of existential threats this century: the migration crisis of the past half-decade, the 2008 financial crisis and the yearslong north-south divide within Europe over who should pay to resuscitate the Eurozone’s economies, the 2005 votes of “no” to the European constitution, and, of course, Brexit.
But the pandemic now underway may present the biggest risk to the political project of European unity, as countries still smarting from the bruises of 2008’s economic devastation figure out how to fund economic recovery efforts across the continent. Today the question of whether coronavirus will do what all those other crises could not — dismember an effort to create a peaceful, prosperous, political power — remains open. And it is up to Europe’s leaders and their citizens to decide how much sacrifice they are willing to make collectively in this moment of nation-first sentiment to save it.
The moment now requires open wallets as well as soothing words. After wealthier countries dismissed the idea of “corona bonds” to fund economic recovery, EU nations most impacted by Covid-19 eagerly await the European Commission’s economic recovery plan.
Whether that plan will possess enough economic oomph to deliver real help is not yet clear. The European Union, despite its name, is made up of member countries struggling in a slew of different and lopsided ways to recover from both the public health devastation and the financial downturn it wrought. The size of the plan and the verdict on who pays for it will tell us a lot about European unity and whether the EU as we have known it can survive this crisis.
To succeed in continuing an experiment that has brought enduring peace even while facing political turbulence, the divisions between the countries suffering the most from Covid-19 — including Italy, Spain, Portugal and France — and those that have felt the virus’s impact less, namely Germany and the Netherlands, among others, will have to be confronted, not skirted.
Recent Comments