Coronavirus Deal: Europe must be bold
The whole world is experiencing a situation unprecedented in peacetime. An asymmetrical shock, a human tragedy of inconceivable proportions. The world has lost thousands to the coronavirus, virtually freezing economic activity in an attempt to halt this invisible foe.
But this is not just a health crisis. Nor is it even a nascent economic crisis. In the midst of this deadly pandemic, the EU is facing one of the biggest identity and solidarity crises in its history. And it is doubtful whether its traditional mechanisms will be able to respond adequately this time.
The fact is, the EU has made moves in recent weeks that would have been economically taboo a few years ago, such as the suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact due to COVID-19, while the European Commission has prepared a more ambitious proposal for the 2021-2027 EU budget.
However, an unprecedented crisis requires an unprecedented response.
Europe has a historic opportunity to show that it has learned from its mistakes and will not repeat the ‘sins of the past’, for which it and its members paid a heavy price. It owes this to its history and to the visionaries who conceived of the European endeavour. Rather than adopting a short-sighted, frugal and bureaucratic mindset, it must see what is really at stake and act promptly.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed this to his colleagues – asking for coordinated action – and in a joint letter with eight other heads of state, asking for a common debt instrument and issuing of ‘coronabonds’.
How this bond is structured isn’t important. That can be discussed on a technical level. What is of greater value is the immediate expression of political will that we will be united when the crisis abates.
If Europe does not express its solidarity now – unanimously and resolutely – it risks not only being dragged into a deep economic recession, but also giving ground to underlying anti-European sentiment that will seriously undermine, if not bring down, the European edifice. Who doubts that eurosceptic and populist voices will then loudly express their revanchism, or that disappointed citizens will turn their backs on the Union, seeking support in their nation states?
But if the Union now shows genuine and substantial solidarity, in the wake of the crisis it will be able to offer its citizens a future with purpose, value and prospects. The great challenge posed for the EU by the coronavirus crisis is the leap forward to political maturity.
So the EU must be bold enough to devise a real ‘Coronavirus Deal’, first and foremost for political, rather than economic, reasons. If it does this, the Union will emerge stronger from the crisis. If it doesn’t, I fear it is bound to suffer profound rifts and disappointment.
April 4, 2020