CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2020

LE MONDE ESSAY
The corona-pandemic: the lessons for
Europe and the global community
Europe has faced times of crisis and has had to overcome major political as well as
economical challenges.
Martin Selmayr
is a German expert in
European law and EU
official. From November
2014 until the end of
February 2018, he was the
Head of Cabinet of then EU
Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker and
acted as the Commission
President’s Sherpa. From
March 2018 to July 2019, he
was the Secretary-General
of the European
Commission. Since
November 2019, Selmayr
has been heading the
Representation of the
European Commission to
Austria.
http://ec.europa.eu/
austria/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/
EUKommWien
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.
com/ekoesterreich
A
lthough the corona-pandemic clearly shapes
the current times, it is worthwhile remembering
that two important anniversaries mark
the year 2020: Austria – together with Sweden and
Finland – celebrates its 25th anniversary as member
of the European Union. Moreover, exactly 70 years
ago on 9 May 1950, the French minister for foreign
affairs Robert Schuman made a declaration paving
the way for a peaceful and wealthy future of the European
continent. In these past 70 years, Europe has
grown stronger and it has grown together. Yet, Europe
has also faced times of crisis and has had to overcome
major challenges – politically as well as economically.
As European Commission President Ursula
von der Leyen recently put it in a speech in the European
Parliament: “In many ways, Europe‘s motto has
always been not only ‘united in diversity‘ but also
‘united in adversity‘”.
Faced with the corona-pandemic, the European
Union must once again stand together, mobilise all its
resources and prove that it is not a club of fair-weather
friends. Europe is not only confronted with a health
crisis, but faces the biggest economic downturn since
the Second World War: The Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) of the euro area is set to fall by 7.7% this year,
according to the European Commission’s spring forecast
released on 6 May. The recession hits all EU Member
States, but not with the same magnitude. The economies
of Greece, Italy, Spain and Croatia are each set
to shrink by more than 9 %, thus more than twice as
much as the GDP of Poland (-4.3 %) and considerably
stronger than in Luxembourg (-5.4 %) and Austria
(-5.5 %). In parallel, the EU’s unemployment rate is
expected to jump from 6.7 % in 2019 to 9.0 % this year.
Without any doubt, this unprecedented situation
in the history of the European Union calls for an unprecedented
answer. The good news amid the bad
news: the European Union is now much better equipped
for weathering an economic storm than it was ten
years ago – thanks to the measures introduced during
the financial and economic crisis. The new architecture
has enabled finance ministers to decide within
only a few weeks on a 540 billion euro support package
for Member States. An important element of this
package is the so-called SURE initiative, which the
Commission has proposed to mitigate the risk of unemployment
in the EU. It allows for financial assistance
of up to 100 billion euro in the form of loans to
affected Member States.
Moreover, the European Commission has introduced
a flexible State Aid framework so that Member
States have maximum room for manoeuvre to support
their companies and citizens. By mid-May, the European
Commission has approved more than 120 national
support measures. Moreover, for the first time
ever, the European Commission has triggered the escape
clause in the Stability and Growth Pact, thus allowing
Member States to depart temporarily from the
budgetary requirements that would normally apply.
All this comes on top of the measures taken by the
European Central Bank that launched a Pandemic
Emergency Purchase Programme worth 750 billion
euro in mid-March – besides additional net asset
purchases worth 120 billion euro.
Another crucial pillar of the European recovery
strategy is the Multiannual Financial Framework for
2021-2027, which is complemented by a recovery instrument.
In order to make best use of its firepower, the
EU budget will serve as a guarantee for issuing bonds
on the financial market. By doing so, the European
Commission can raise more than 500 billion euro to
help the industries and regions hardest hit by the pandemic.
A huge asset of the European Union that will spur
the economic recovery is the single market. It is important
to restore it in a gradual way so that companies
and citizens can tap its full potential again. The
single market plays also a major role in the success
story that has unfolded during Austria’s EU membership.
Last year, 70 % of Austrian exports of goods
worth 154 billion euro were shipped to EU partners.
The close economic ties between EU Member States
underline that it is not altruism, but economic rationale
that should motivate Member States to help each
other overcome the crisis.
Joint action and solidarity are also vital in other
areas. For example, EU Member States jointly repatriated
around 80.000 travellers stranded in third countries
with support from the EU civil protection mechanism
by the end of May. The command of the
PHOTO : EUROPÄISCHE KOMMISSION IN ÖSTERREICH
hour is that EU Member States act in a coordinated
and careful way when lifting the emergency measures
introduced to contain the virus. A second wave of the
corona-pandemic is not an invention of doom-mongers;
unfortunately, it is a very tangible and realistic
threat. Thus, we have to join forces to develop diagnostics,
treatments and vaccines against the virus.
The European Commission organised an emergency
call in January to fund 18 projects involving 140 research
teams with a total of 48 million euro from Horizon
2020, the EU research and innovation programme.
The Austrian biotech company Apeptico
coordinates one of these projects. In addition, on 19
May the European Commission mobilised another
122 million euro from the programme Horizon 2020
for urgently needed research into the coronavirus.
Moreover, in order to help Member States meet the
demand for protective equipment like ventilators and
face masks, the European Commission launched four
joint procurement procedures.
While European cooperation is of paramount importance
to fight the corona-pandemic, it is not sufficient:
As we are faced with a worldwide pandemic,
we need a global effort to tackle it. For this purpose,
“Europe alone” is as flawed a concept as “America
first”. Standing together as a global community is crucial
now. The disease knows no borders and does not
discriminate. As long as it affects some of us, none of
us is safe.
The European Commission, the World Health Organization,
and partners from around the globe have
teamed up to accelerate the development, production
and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics, and
therapeutics for COVID-19, so that all people have
equitable access to these lifesaving products. Building
on this commitment, the European Commission hosted
a donor’s conference. More than 40 countries came
together and pledged more than 9 billion euro by the
end of May in support of research and development for
vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
The corona-pandemic hit us at a moment when
the multilateral system was not in its best shape, for
reasons that need no further explanation. Yet, the
pandemic has shown once more that our destinies are
bound together across continents. Instead of pointing
the finger at each other, we should seize the opportunity
and strengthen our multilateral system. History
will judge us not only on whether we got through this
pandemic, but also on the lessons we drew from it.
There are of course also lessons to learn for the European
Union. One is that we all ought to show consistency
and fairness towards the European project.
If, for example, Member States set up a European
counterpart to the American Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) by founding the
agency ECDC in Stockholm, but grant it no operational
powers and staff it with 280 instead of the 10,000
employees in the United States, then one has to accept
that these choices will reflect in the output. In other
words: If you invest only in an ordinary city bike, you
should not complain that it does not function like a
carbon-frame mountain bike with air shock at the
rear once the road gets steep or bumpy. Likewise, if
the Member States jointly establish a European Central
Bank, it must be able to intervene massively in the
bond markets in the interest of the stability of our
common currency in times of crisis, just as the US
Central Bank does. Otherwise, we should not be surprised
if capital in Europe is more expensive and Europe
takes longer than other continents to emerge
from the recession. The European Union, its institutions
and its instruments are as good and as powerful
as Member States want them to be, for a simple reason:
The European Union is not a distanced power in
Brussels or Strasbourg. It is shaped by its Member
States and us all.
The Representation of the European Commission
in Austria was very honoured to welcome Federal
President Alexander Van der Bellen as the honorary
guest at the virtual Europe Day festivities, organised
together with the Vienna based EU offices and broadcast
on ORFIII. Thus, I would like to end with a quote
from his inspiring speech: “The European Union is
not perfect. It is far from perfect. It will not always
save us from getting our feet wet. But let us appreciate
what we have in it. That demands more seriousness
than simply condemning it. It is easier to cut down a
tree than to make it grow. No, the European Union is
not perfect. But we can make it a little better every
day. It’s up to us.”
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Cercle Diplomatique 2/2020
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