Europe put to the test by Covid-19
Audio 02:44
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the European Council in July 2020 (illustrative image) AFP - STEPHANIE LECOCQ
By: Bruno Daroux Follow
6 mins
The health situation in Europe remains very worrying in some countries like France, and very controversial over the slowness of the vaccination campaign in the EU - even if things are starting to improve a little.
The contrast is cruel when we compare this situation to that of the United States, Great Britain or Israel.
Why and how did Europe find itself in this situation?
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It is first of all the story of a disorderly response to the pandemic.
Health being a prerogative of States and not of the European Union, it was very difficult for the 27 to adopt common measures as soon as the Covid-19 spread on the Old Continent.
From where a first impression of disorder and each for himself, a little compensated by the laborious but all the same historical development of a recovery plan financed by a common debt and no longer State by State.
A plan of 750 billion euros which is a little pale, despite everything, in the face of the massive stimulus plan of 2.200 billion dollars that Joe Biden has just launched on the other side of the Atlantic.
The other cause of the current difficulties is in Europe itself - and that is of course bad news for all Europhiles.
While London and Washington, very early, spent lavishly to develop an anti-Covid vaccine, Europeans wondered, procrastinated, expressed doubts about the possibility of finding a vaccine so quickly and therefore did not release the necessary funds in this sense.
Addiction
Europe found itself dependent on the countries which had put the package together.
She had to negotiate deliveries of vaccine doses for her population.
And unfortunately, the management by the European Commission of vaccination contracts with British and American laboratories has been calamitous or naive, difficult to say: too late, too little, at too slow a pace.
From where a chain of real hopes of massive arrivals of vaccine doses too often denied, of controversies and inglorious justifications of the European leaders: some like Angela Merkel, recognize their error - others like Emmanuel Macron remain straight in their boots and refuse to indulge in any
mea culpa
.
At the very most, we admit that Europe, for the sake of prudence, paralyzed by the precautionary principle, may have lacked boldness and ambition.
We want to add: unity too - again.
And now ?
Fortunately, the situation has improved on the vaccine delivery front.
We are beginning - finally - to install vaccinodromes in certain countries.
In short, we are trying to catch up in the face of an epidemic that continues to vary and forces impatient, tired and sometimes overwhelmed populations to have to accept new measures to curb the circulation of the virus as we say when we do not want to talk about confinement.
We are also trying to plan what to do next with this second phase of the vaccine - perhaps this fall.
Europe now wants to gain autonomy in the production of vaccines and be able to produce by the end of this year, between two and three billion doses per year.
These commitments must now be translated into action.
If the European Union wants to rise to the challenges of this pandemic.
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