During this Connecting Europe webinar, EPC Policy Analysts Marta Pilati and Simona Guagliardo assessed the measures taken to date by the EU and member states in response to Covid-19, discussed how the EU should respond to this economic and health crisis and the possible long-term.
The EU’s response at the beginning had been slow and uncoordinated. This was due to two factors: firstly, the EU has very limited competences in the field of healthcare; secondly, national governments had”national reflexes“ that had led them to take unilateral measures including closing borders and and enforcing export bans on medical equipment that the European Commission had recommended be lifted. However, the EU had started to take action after a few weeks, especially in with regard to economic and fiscal policies, but also to coordinate health-related measures with a view to finding a common exit strategy.