In a rare intervention Jacques Delors, the former European commission president who helped build the modern EU, broke his silence last weekend to warn that lack of solidarity posed “a mortal danger to the European Union”...
“This is definitely a make-it-or-break-it moment for the European project,” said Nathalie Tocci, a former adviser to the EU foreign policy chief. “If it goes badly this really risks being the end of the union. It fuels all the nationalist-populism.”
The coronavirus debacle has exposed a number of previously obvious EU failings, but a major failing has been its inability to react in a timely manner. The EU is painfully slow in its deliberations. We may criticise Boris and the UK government, but compared to the EU it has responded like lightning.
Oddly enough this suggests that the EU has been lucky up until now. It has not had to respond to such a fast-moving crisis as this and its turgid inability to change gear has not been so obvious. Now it is obvious.
7 comments:
The EU disintegrating is something entertaining to look forward to, after the bug has gone.
I'm buying a big bag of popcorn - this promises to be most amusing.
I wonder if the EU are now still as keen on migrants from outside the continent? Italy closed the border with Switzerland, but are they still rescuing Africans from their unseaworthy boats in the Med?
I suppose politicians and bureaucrats never consider what might really happen when something like Covid 19 appears.
They'll still wag fingers, point at others, and make sure they aren't really affected too much.
Not even the mighty Mark Carney thought that a pandemic could be more of a threat than, wait for it, CLIMATE CHANGE. Those experts. It's amusing that Obama has lately come under attack for suggesting that the world is in danger of forgetting the almighty risks of climate change? EU folks are still thunberging away. Meanwhile back in the Guardian, the eco freaks are struggling to get a look in
Was this an April Fool or just peak narcissism?
https://amgreatness.com/2020/04/01/obama-slams-trump-rollback-of-vehicle-emission-standards/
Ed - I'm looking forward to it too, although we don't have popcorn. Fig biscuits may have to do.
Sam - I hope this mess leaves us with a more robust attitude towards our borders. Much more robust would be good.
Scrobs - I'd put most of it on bureaucratic shoulders because they knew something like this would turn up sooner or later.
Graeme - maybe Obama is just trying to stir things on the assumption that the pandemic will have subsided by election time. His recent house purchase suggests he doesn't actually believe what he says about climate change.
Yes, together with Al Gore, they make a great practical example of revealed preference theory
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