Coronavirus: what lessons for the European Union?

On Europe 1, the historian-geographer Sylvain Kahn returned to the management by the European Union of the economic and health crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Today, he judges, Europe is emerging "more integrated".

But she lacked boldness when it came to vaccines. 

INTERVIEW

In what state will the European Union emerge from the coronavirus crisis?

As the EU continues to struggle with the epidemic, Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of the 27 meet in Strasbourg on Sunday to kick off the Conference on the Future of Europe, an inauguration scheduled for the day of the feast of Europe.

The opportunity for Europe 1 to try to draw initial conclusions on the management of the pandemic in recent months in the company of the historian-geographer Sylvain Kahn. 

A very heavy human toll

First conclusion, indisputable and dramatic: Europe will emerge from this pandemic "with many deaths".

"Europe was and still is one of the hotbeds of the pandemic, and that will go down in history," recalls Sylvain Kahn.

Europe had a total of 1,086,526 deaths on Friday.

A "more integrated" Europe

Second observation made by the guest of Europe 1, Europe emerges from this crisis "more integrated". From the first months, "the States were very collectively seized by what happened when the pandemic began to strike in Italy", remarks Sylvain Kahn, for whom, overall, the EU was "at the height "in its response, especially in the face of" the economic and social consequences ". And the professor at Sciences Po Paris to quote the "very important recovery plan", but also the "mobilization of the European Central Bank" which avoided the catastrophe to several member countries, and made it possible to "support the partial unemployment schemes" . In addition, Sylvain Kahn recalls that the famous Maastricht criteria "were suspended from theunanimity of the member states ". 

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Regarding health policy, the results are more mixed.

First of all, the epidemic has therefore caused a great many deaths.

And during the crisis, "we realized that a certain number of health systems in almost all countries were a little shaken up and in difficulty", explains the historian.

"We realized that Europe had no competence in health policy because the European states did not want it. And so, everyone said to themselves that maybe it would be good if 'we mutualize. "

On vaccination, "a kind of risk aversion" among Europeans

On vaccination, "where we were very good, it was when we decided for the first time that we were going to group together to pre-order the doses together, including to laboratories which we did not yet know if they were would manage to produce vaccines ", ensures Sylvain Kahn, who illustrates:" The 27 Member States have said to the European Commission: 'We mandate you, we charge you to lead negotiations for us' ". And that, he concludes, "I think it's a success, because if not, what would have happened? Certain States which are better endowed and which have more money, which have more network, would have pre-ordered lots of doses. We would have been in competition with each other and we would have found ourselves in a frankly very delicate situation "with less rich countries in great difficulty.

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On the other hand, the guest of Europe 1 recognizes that the weak point of this strategy is that Europe "wanted to lower prices as much as possible", he regrets, while the European Commission and Member States "wanted as much as possible to free themselves from any legal responsibilities for possible side effects".

Also, "if we compare to the British, the United States, the Israelis, who vaccinated much faster, there is a kind of risk aversion among Europeans," says Sylvain Kahn. 

"I don't think Europeans are angry with the EU"

However, Sylvain Kahn refuses to believe in a clear and definitive loss of trust between citizens and Europe.

"I don't think the Europeans are angry with the EU, on the contrary," he replies.

"I think that among Europeans, there is a social demand for Europe which has crystallized or has been reinforced during this crisis."