Will the European Union Survive COVID-19?

By Henry Srebrnik, [Fredericton, NB] Daily Gleaner
 
Fifteen years ago, the European Union was riding high. It seemed set to begin creating a superstate.

The Iron Curtain was a memory. In 2004 10 new countries were admitted to the EU, with three more to come. It ballooned to 28 members. But then the wheels started to come off.

The financial crisis of 2008 brought economic austerity and high unemployment, especially in the Mediterranean states of Greece, Italy, and Spain, fuelling mounting dissatisfaction.

The euro, the official currency of 19 of the EU’s members in the monetary union known as the Eurozone, came under attack, as these countries could no longer manage their own fiscal responses to the damage.

Then came the refugee crisis of 2015, as millions of people fleeing wars and chaos in Africa and the Middle East attempted to enter Europe.

The reaction to this massive wave asylum seekers was at first quite welcoming, but it was not to last. It led to the surge in support for populist and far-right parties throughout the EU, including France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, four of the six original member states. In newer members such as Austria, Hungary, and Poland, illiberal parties came to power or entered government coalitions, something hitherto unthinkable.

Finally, in 2016, the United Kingdom, one of its most important members, voted in a referendum to leave the EU; it departed this past January.

And now the COVID-19 has hit Europe; it is especially viral in France, Italy and Spain. “Europe has now become the epicentre of the pandemic,” noted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization. Will the coronavirus kill the EU itself?

European leaders voted March 17 to close off 26 EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland to nearly all visitors from the rest of the world for at least 30 days in a bid to arrest the spread of the coronavirus.

In Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said there had been “a unanimous and united approach” to the decision.

Belgium, Italy and Spain have virtually locked down their populations. In Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel has banned religious services and most other venues will also be closed. In France tough new restrictions have come into force. No one can now leave home without a government form to justify their reason.

And the walls are going up between EU nations as well. The European system of open internal borders, a cornerstone of European integration, is on the brink of collapse.

The so-called Schengen Area, which comprises 26 European countries, in 1995 abolished the need for passports and other types of control. A key practical and symbolic achievement of European integration, it is now falling apart.

On March 10, Austria announced controls along the border with Italy and a ban on the entry of most travelers from there. A day later, Slovenia closed some border crossings with Italy.

The president of Italy’s hard-hit Veneto region, Luca Zaia, in turn said that Europe’s borderless zone was “disappearing as we speak.” He lamented that Schengen “no longer exists and will be remembered in the history books.”

On March 13, Poland announced that only Polish citizens or people with a Polish residence permit would be allowed to enter the country. That same day the Swiss government imposed border controls with other European countries. Denmark followed a day later.

Germany on March 16 introduced border controls with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, later extended to Italy and Spain, while Hungary stated that all passenger traffic into Hungary would be halted.

The British government on March 17 advised citizens against all non-essential travel worldwide. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovakia, and Spain also imposed border controls.

The days of welcoming Middle Eastern refugees with open arms are also long gone, as evidenced by Greece’s resistance to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent funneling of thousands of Syrian refugees right up to the Greek border. Some refugee camps have even been set alight and people killed.

Migrants and refugees are in great danger from the virus; if they start feeling ill they have nowhere to live and no way of getting food. Europe has gone back to the future.