Weak Institutions, Positive Results. The European Union's response to Covid-19

The pandemic has proved to be the main economic challenge and a critical juncture for the European Union (EU) since the end of the Second World War. At the same time, the pandemic has tested the European institutional architecture, unveiling unresolved issues of that framework. This chapter discusses the response of the EU during the pandemic, which shifted from initially insufficient action to a better coordination during the subsequent months of March/April and May 2020. Coordination was the main task of the European Commission, which eventually led to a concrete action of solidarity, through various measures for economic relief. Nonetheless, the pandemic shall be included within the context of a decade of crisis in the EU. Hence, the issues regarding the pandemic have underlined the old fractures of the EU – on one hand, the North-South divide between the member states, and on the other hand, the debate over a more supranational integration versus the intergovernmental method. This chapter underscores that the EU was not able to face such an emergency at the beginning and that the European Council decisions of July 2020 may renew European integration.