The EU ineffectiveness

In an emergency situation such as that present in Europe, due to the COVID-19 virus, the European Union has not shone. Indeed, it has been the bearer of an absolutely negligent behavior.

The absence of a clear stance was judged as a weakness for an organization as criticized in the past as in the present. The fact that each member state of the European Union is implementing different policies to deal with the danger of the virus is an example of how this organization is not yet ready and complete to be able to face the problems of the European territory.

In Italy anti-Europeanism has never been so rampant. Nationalism is growing in France, Germany and Spain.

One must not be animated by a particular anti-Europeanism to unfortunately have to note that, in the case of the coronavirus epidemic which, in particular, has hit Italy, the European Union has shone for its (guilty) absence and for its political inconsistency. Indeed, with some behaviors, the European institutions themselves (I am thinking, for example, of the quarantine obligation for Members of Northern Italy issued by the Parliament of Strasbourg), have fueled the alarmism, the hysteria and the most disparate tendencies to do by themselves of individuals Countries, beyond any shared rule and any scientific logic. I believe that an excellent opportunity has been missed to make European citizens, and also the rest of the world, understand the importance and significance of the Union.

Certainly, the new faces of the European establishment have not made a good impression on the citizens of the old continent. Christine La Garde caused the irritated reactions of the Italians with the disastrous exit on the role of the ECB which “is not to reduce the spread”.

According to the president of the European parliament Sassoli, the problem is that that sentence, later specified, overshadowed the other measures put in place to help Italy in this difficult moment: “Three words are enough to not highlight some provisions that also the ECB had arranged. Community institutions are looking for a common response, and of course the first response is to support countries in difficulty. Yesterday we were busy looking for two ways: that of a reflection on the package that the Commission will present today and which will be a first response, and then the comparison with the initiatives of the American administration which yesterday did not agree with us on the measures that have a big impact on Europe “.

Then he concluded, always revealing the strong irritation for Lagarde’s gesture: “And at this stage a declaration of this kind arrives, which is not true, because the ECB has tools to help not only the European economy but even individual countries, “he explained. And on the comparison with Mario Draghi, who in 2012 chose an opposite line, he said: “It is not for me to give this judgment”.

By: Domenico Greco