Open AccessEuropean response to COVID-19 health crisis
Author(s) -
George Nastos
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
hapsc policy briefs series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2732-6586
pISSN - 2732-6578
DOI - 10.12681/hapscpbs.24957
Subject(s) - european union , pandemic , covid-19 , crisis management , member states , political science , politics , crisis response , refugee crisis , competence (human resources) , development economics , political economy , economic growth , international trade , business , economics , medicine , public relations , virology , law , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , pathology , outbreak , management
The world is undergoing the pandemic health crisis of COVID-19. First and foremost, the pandemic is causing losses in human lives all over the world. Secondly, it is testing the economies of all countries, regardless of the degree of dispersion and loss of lives between the states. Another consequence of this health crisis is that apart from national health systems, it also puts to the test political systems. This consequence is even greater for an evolving political system such as the European Union, which in a decade has faced two other crises - the Eurozone and the refugee crisis. The EU has once again been called upon to face an exogenous cross-border crisis. It has to confront a pandemic within the existing framework of its competence, tools and bodies, while creating new ones in the need to support its Member States. This paper focuses on the European Union's response to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the weaknesses that this crisis has brought to the fore and the policies that would help the EU manage similar crises in the future.