There has been a lack of political will to address the coronavirus crisis at the European level, Greece’s alternate minister of foreign affairs said Wednesday, in an interview with Politico’s Lili Bayer. He added that there is “the sentiment that Europe is returning to the nation-state.”
“The overall rating of EU reaction is poor,” Mr. Varvitsiotis told Politico, pointing to a lack of “early health guidelines” and other forms of coordination. Citing a videoconference last week in which EU leaders clashed over the economic response to the crisis, Mr. Varvitsiotis commented: “I think that gives us the sentiment that Europe is returning to the nation-state and is moving away from what should have been a common European response to a common — to a global — challenge.”
Athens’ concerns are “in line” with those of Italy and Spain, Mr. Varvitsiotis said. “The fact that almost half of the GDP of the EU understand this idea of the coronavirus bond, is something that shows that there is a solidarity based and solution-searching process in some parts of Europe, in a great part of Europe,” he stressed, adding that "leaders who neglect to see this necessity, actually undermine the cry for help from the countries that have been harshly hit from this crisis, which ... wasn't their fault.”
“It's not like 2010,” he said. Mr. Varvitsiotis signaled that Greece is willing to look at a range of options, as long as action is taken. “Either we call it a coronavirus bond, or we call it a solidarity pact, or a Marshall plan, as it has been called from others, or a post-Corona plan … it doesn’t matter,” he said. “The thing is, is there the political will? And if there is the political will, then we can find the best way to deal with that. We can use the money from the budget, we can use extraordinary funds, we can give facilitations, we can give a cash inflow.” “Until now we haven’t got the commitment, the political commitment, that there is the will to deal with this crisis in a proper way that actually will calm the markets and will give a reassurance to our citizens that Europe is there for them,” he concluded.
Read the full article here:
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-response-to-coronavirus-crisis-poor-says-senior-greek-official/
April 1, 2020