COVID-19 poses a huge challenge for Europe

Europe has been badly affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and this has revealed the limits of the solidarity that exists between the 27 member nations of the EU.
Italy and Spain are particularly suffering, with COVID-19 death tolls in both countries surpassing the total in China, which was the first country affected by the outbreak. In effect, Europe is now the center of the pandemic.
While Italy has received some help from China and Cuba, other countries in Europe have been managing the crisis on their own, adopting an “every man for himself” approach.
While the approval ratings of French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe have been boosted, by 14 percent and 13 percent respectively, as a result of the public’s positive view of their handling of the crisis domestically, European nations have failed to efficiently coordinate in the wider battle against the virus.
French hospitals and health professionals lack sufficient stocks of masks and respirators, and components for masks had to be imported, mainly from China. Italy needs more hospital space for the large numbers of patients. France offered little assistance with this because its own hospitals are saturated.
Macron, Philippe and Minister of Health Olivier Veran, a rising star in French politics if public opinion is anything to go by, are making relentless efforts to win the battle in France’s “war” against the coronavirus; Macron repeated six times in a recent speech that “we are in a war.”
There is no doubt that the pandemic has delivered a hard economic shock to the continent, and European leaders are beginning to think about the aftermath and the recession that is sure to follow.
The leaders of nine European countries, including France, Italy and Spain, have called for the issuance of joint European debt to finance the response to the pandemic. They sent a letter to Charles Michel, president of the European Council, arguing that the EU must provide a common debt instrument, issued by a European institution, through which member states can raise funds, on the same basis and to the benefit of all, to counter the effects of the pandemic. The German and Dutch governments do not favor this idea.
The leaders of the 27 EU member states took part in a summit on Thursday, using video links, during which they tried to improve their coordination as they tackle the crisis. If they fail to unify their response to the pandemic and its consequences on their economies, the results will be devastating for a union that already faces growing opposition from populist voices in many of its member nations.
It is true that public health is important to all nations, each of which develops and implements its own rules and procedures to safeguard it. However, the scale and the global nature of the pandemic will force EU states to develop a common economic strategy to help the continent recover from a major economic shock.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, fearing a recession, has announced a business aid package worth €45 billion ($50 billion) for French companies, and said the government is willing to nationalize large companies, such as Air France, to protect them from bankruptcy. He also described the struggle against the pandemic as an economic and financial war, and said national debt will exceed 100 percent of the GDP this year, well above the EU guidelines of not more than 60 percent.
Macron, meanwhile, speaking at an emergency medical center established by the army in Mulhouse, eastern France, made a commitment to the nation to implement a massive investment plan for hospitals and health care when the crisis is under control. This is badly needed; France has some of the best doctors and medical researchers in the world but its public hospitals have been suffering as a result of lack of investment in improvements and modernization.

One hopes that Europe can succeed in creating an operational, well-coordinated economic strategy to prevent the European ship from sinking.

Randa Takieddine

For the time being, as the death toll in France approaches 1,700, the French military is supporting public health services through Operation Resilience, which includes field hospitals set up by the army.
European leaders thinking about the aftermath of the pandemic must prepare for the dramatic recession that will hit them following the restrictions on social and commercial activities, which are likely to remain in place for several more weeks, if not months.
Will they prove to be more united and efficient in their response to this crisis than they have so far managed to be in foreign diplomacy, where Europe has failed to act as a single, unified power in the world?
The challenges created by this coronavirus “war” are huge in terms of human lives, of course, but also at an economic level. One hopes that Europe can succeed in creating an operational, well-coordinated economic strategy to prevent the European ship from sinking.

• Randa Takieddine is a Paris-based Lebanese journalist who headed Al-Hayat’s bureau in France for 30 years. She has covered France’s relations with the Middle East through the terms of four presidents.