{"id":6020,"date":"2020-03-30T14:48:50","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T14:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chief-exec.com\/?p=6020"},"modified":"2020-10-27T08:52:20","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T08:52:20","slug":"after-corona-a-world-transformed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/?p=6020","title":{"rendered":"After Corona: A world transformed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The coronavirus pandemic is testing leaders, governments, parties and political systems everywhere, writes Geoff Kitney, <\/em>and the global health crisis may give Beijing a big advantage in the battle for economic supremacy.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Behind the bold and grand vision which led to the creation of the European Union was a much more prosaic reality. The story of the evolution of the EU, since the first Treaty to create a united Europe was signed in Paris in 1951, has been more a story of \u201cmuddle through\u201d than of enlightened leadership.<\/p>\n

There have been many crises in the seven decades since Robert Schuman first proposed the creation of a supranational entity to pool European coal and steel production which have been accompanied by dire predictions of the end of the European project. Always, when it seemed all hope may be lost, a formula has been found which allows all the member states to pronounce that their demands have been met, an agreement has been signed and the Union will go on, from strength to strength.<\/p>\n

In the end, working together has always been seen as better for the member states than going it alone, with the one recent and notable exception of Britain and Brexit.<\/p>\n

But now a test of an unprecedented dimension is facing Europe.<\/p>\n

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This will surely be a test of the EU\u2019s ability to rise to the challenge of agreeing on a Europe-wide framework within which a combination of national and shared actions result in the suppression of the virus and the salvation of the economy.<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The coronavirus \u2013 COVID-19 \u2013 is sweeping Europe, creating a health crisis not seen in living memory. Tolls of infections and deaths have grown exponentially. No border has proven impenetrable. This is a Europe-wide crisis, part of a global crisis.<\/p>\n

But this virus has done what no other crisis has done since the beginning of the European project. It has forced the member nations of the European Union to shut their borders to their non-national, fellow European citizens. The national states of Europe have been forced to close borders not enforced since the single market compelled them to take their borders down. Nationalists are certain to seek to make closed-border virus responses permanent ones.<\/p>\n

The requirement that membership of the EU compels of its members \u2013 to share sovereignty and destiny \u2013 has been suspended as the member states attempt to defend their own nationals from the virus. The EU, from its headquarters in Brussels, has been floundering, both in terms of its ability to help the member states deal with the virus but also in explaining its failure to anticipate, and having the capacity in reserve for dealing with, such a continent-wide pandemic.<\/p>\n

Comparisons are being drawn with Asian countries such as South Korea and Singapore which, after the SARS epidemic in 2003 (which affected just 26 countries, according to the World Health Organization), developed strategies \u2013 including building up reserve medical equipment supply chains \u2013 which have been quickly mobilised in response to the Coronavirus. Why did the EU not plan for such a worst-case scenario?<\/p>\n

What the political consequences will be of the actions of national governments and the EU itself in response to the virus are impossible to predict at this early stage. While the crisis is a medical emergency and its impacts continue to spread, thinking through the political outcomes is impossible. \u201cMuddle through\u201d, though, would seem to be no way to bring this crisis to a satisfactory conclusion.<\/p>\n

This will surely be a test of the EU\u2019s ability to rise to the challenge of agreeing on a Europe-wide framework within which a combination of national and shared actions result in the suppression of the virus and the salvation of the economy.<\/p>\n

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New guidelines today that protect companies and infrastructure in this crisis against foreign takeovers. We help Member States screen offers from outside Europe. 🇪🇺will remain open to foreign direct investment but we need to balance it with our responsibility to protect. pic.twitter.com\/9fxVMt8Kqz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 25, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n