European leaders warn coronavirus could lead to the breakup of their union
E.U. countries have begun to coordinate their efforts to procure supplies, and they have sent more aid to hard-hit Italy than China has. But the past week has seen a reemergence of a north-south rift over how to handle the economic response. The union is also being pulled east to west, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has used emergency powers to effectively suspend democracy, riding roughshod over Europe’s basic principles of the rule of law.
Collectively, these tensions could overwhelm the alliance.
“This could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Nathalie Tocci, director of the International Affairs Institute in Italy. “The reason why coronavirus is such an epochal challenge is not that it brought things out of the blue. It touches on all spheres and does so by accentuating dynamics that are already there. It’s as if it is bringing the extreme out of everything.”
Norbert Röttgen, a German politician jockeying to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel, likened the continent’s infighting to “a grueling trench war,” as he joined the chorus of voices warning that the E.U. is in grave peril.
“The climate that seems to reign among heads of state and government and the lack of European solidarity pose a mortal danger to the European Union,” Jacques Delors, a 94-year-old French politician who played a leading role in the creation of the bloc’s modern form, warned in a rare statement.
The debate has reopened wounds that had just barely scarred over from the 2008 financial crisis, when Germany led Europeans in imposing painful austerity measures on Greece and Italy in exchange for financial assistance.
Now, with needs even more acute, some are left wondering: If the richer E.U. countries are not willing to support their struggling neighbors, what’s the point of membership at all?
The European Commission has gone to pains to point out acts of European “solidarity,” including how Germany and Luxembourg have taken in coronavirus patients from France and Italy. France has donated a million masks to Italy, while Germany has sent seven tons of medical gear, it pointed out in a recent fact sheet. The commission also has set up a joint stockpile of medical equipment.
But with the early reluctance to share supplies, and the resounding “no” from northern European countries on coronabonds, it’s been hard to compete with the television images of China flying in boxes of aid and Russian soldiers convoying into northern Italy.
“Europe really is going to have to come together and overcome its initial stumbles if it wants to win this battle of narratives,” said Noah Barkin, a senior visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “It really can’t afford to be seen as bickering at a time like this.”
While that applied during the financial crisis a decade ago, Barkin said, it’s even more crucial now, given “a much more hostile United States and a rising China, which has shown it’s going to take full advantage of this crisis to promote its own interests.”