Level playing field is essential if the EU is to recover equally
TODAY is Europe Day, marking the Schuman Declaration of May 9, 1950, in which the idea of a European Union was first floated.
Five years after the end of World War II and the destructive results of nationalism, French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed merging European economic interests so that war would become impossible, leading eventually to a united Europe.
Schuman noted “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity”.
There will be no public gatherings of EU citizens to mark Europe Day this year. An invisible enemy, the coronavirus, has been testing the EU in many different ways.
A united Europe has not always been on display but concrete measures to increase solidarity among European countries, and a willingness to see opportunity in the depths of this extraordinary crisis, can help lead us out of it and to a better place.
The lesser known of the EU agencies, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), is monitoring member states’ levels of infection and their roadmaps to very gradually unwind the restrictions.
In only one member state is the situation deteriorating. In three member states infection rates are static. In the others, progress is being made as countries apply varying degrees of lockdown, limiting movement and shutting down all but essential services.
The Covid-19 crisis is now also a grave economic and social issue. Shutting down economic activity has meant member states need to support employees and employers through this crisis at huge cost to budgets. Much of the rule book has been torn up, if not shredded.
The EU has limited powers in health under existing EU treaties. Nonetheless, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has taken the reins in unfolding a series of measures. The EU has helped repatriate citizens, jointly procured ventilators and protective equipment for healthcare workers, built up a common reserve of ventilators and masks that are sent where most needed, and tackled export restrictions by some member states, including establishing priority lanes for the movement of goods.
Money has been provided for research into vaccines, testing and treatments, and also to small businesses and startups with innovative responses to the pandemic.
This past Monday, the EU and partners hosted a global conference to get countries to pledge funding for the development of a vaccine and treatments. Here we see the power of the EU: acting in the EU interest but also on a global basis. The focus is not just developing a vaccine but also to ensure such a vaccine will be available to all.
The financial arm of the union has also responded. Any available cash in the budget has been freed up. For example, regional development funding can be re-purposed for healthcare systems. The European Investment Bank is providing a €40bn emergency package to provide muchneeded liquidity to small business.
The European Central Bank has launched a €750bn pandemic emergency programme, buying up public and private bonds to back up the euro. But the response to the Covid-19 crisis, which has resulted in an economic shutdown globally and in the EU, must not result in a fracturing of the EU single market or unbalanced state aids.
There is a worrying return to nationalism, first seen when member states tried initially to restrict exports of some products essential in the fight against Covid-19. It is also seen in the economic nationalism of a few member states urging companies to use or sell only locally produced food.
Some of the commentary around seasonal workers coming to Ireland to pick fruit smacked of “keeping the foreigners out”, without awareness that without those skilled seasonal workers, fruit would rot on the plants.
A key response of the EU was to free up state-aid rules, to make it easier for countries to support their industries. Since that decision, over €1.8trn has been provided by member states to different sectors of their economies. Half of that significant sum was given by just one member state to assist its business community.
It is understandable that countries want to shore up companies and the people they employ in the face of a pandemic. But this has implications for the level playing field within the EU, when other EU countries cannot
afford this rate of investment. This is why a co-ordinated EU recovery plan is so necessary.
The EU is at its best when countries help each other with concrete actions rather than compete. Germany has airlifted Italian Covid-19 patients for treatment. Teams of doctors from Romania and Norway have deployed to Italy through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The EU Commission’s Emergency Response Co-ordination Centre has facilitated the delivery of masks donated by Taiwan to Spain and Italy.
In 10 days’ time we expect a massive financial package from the European Commission aiming to help the EU economy to recover.
This will mean using the EU budget to leverage massive funding from financial markets to use for loans and grants to member states hardest hit. The basis of the plan centres on the EU’s multi-annual budget, the MFF. Before the crisis hit, a few frugal member states had blocked progress and were refusing to give additional money for new challenges, including climate change and the Just Transition (so that people are not left behind in the move to a greener economy). We will soon know if they have softened their cough in light of the need for a massive financial recovery plan.
The EU can help us recover from this crisis. But member states must be prepared to give the EU the necessary power and resources so it can act effectively.
The EU can do more – a lot more – if European citizens so desire: deeper co-operation on health; stronger solidarity in the eurozone; quicker and more effective responses to crises.
The European Parliament intended for a Conference on the Future of Europe to start on May 9, 2020.
This was to be an opportunity for citizens from across the continent, of all ages and backgrounds, to come together to discuss how the EU should develop over the coming years. The Irish example, the Citizens’ Assembly, was often mentioned as a possible model for the conference. For obvious reasons, the conference has been put on hold.
Seventy years after the Schuman Declaration and its call for a united Europe, the need for a conference is now more urgent than ever.