Friday

29th Mar 2024

Opinion

MEP: Constituents are our window into this tragedy

  • DIY posters in Berlin, March 2020. They read: 'Wash Hands. Call Grandma. Call Grandpa' (Photo: Matthew Tempest)

Constituents are our window into the tragic disruption of coronavirus.

Nurses left without protective equipment, lorry drivers stranded at borders, young gig workers fearing eviction, struggling small businesses ‒ all reach out to me with a single question: Can Europe do something?

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

To an extent, my answer is bound to disappoint. The European Union has a woefully small room for manoeuvre in a public health crisis: healthcare is a national competence.

Despite starkly limited resources, Europe did swing into action. It was belated and much damage was already done, but unlike other world powers, the EU did not sink into public denial.

RescEU is building a strategic stockpile of ventilators and medical equipment. Crossborder cooperation to treat intensive care patients from France's 'Grand Est' region is exemplary and should inspire a wider mechanism for burden-sharing.

The European Investment Bank mobilised €40bn of financial support, the Corona Response Investment Initiative an additional €37bn. Much remains to be done to avoid a Great Depression ‒ we need plans, ambition and solidarity.

My colleague Luis Garicano proposes a comprehensive package including EU-wide income protection and sharing the costs of containment measures.

Easing the chaos after panicky border closures, the EU Commission published guidelines for border management, recommended green lanes for lorries. This could prevent food and medicine shortages, industries collapsing like dominos.

There are many more EU measures to protect lives and livelihoods. But there's one major caveat. Hospital staff at the frontlines or small businesses calling their banks don't know about these options.

The EU is singularly ineffective in making itself visible. Let's call it Batman-style statecraft: a force for good, in disguise. Brussels has few direct links to citizens and governments are keen to play gatekeeper, taking credit for EU action (and, sadly, diverting funds to their pockets sometimes).

In crisis, this is a recipe for disaster.

People on the ground need to see that they can rely on Europe. We need more direct links, but an even quicker improvement would be better communication.

In times like these, fake news can kill. Our Renew Europe COVID Team called for an Information Task Force and an official communication channel to counter disinformation.

The commission should create a hotline with real-time information.

MEPs are 'messengers'

We, MEPs, should be messengers: channel constituents' needs, ensure programs promptly reach them, find each bottleneck between a nurse and a protective mask, a business and an emergency loan.

Let's talk about how national actions fail.

Europe is an excellent scapegoat because its voice is muted. Very few are calling out the absurdity of EU-shaming while it was national selfishness blocking European capacity-building.

Governments are under duress to act but they are ineffective alone ‒ so they resort to flailing, counterproductive or dangerous moves. Viktor Orban's power grab it the most extreme example.

This is unacceptable. All of us in EU decision-making need to speak up for common solutions. As MEPs, we pledged to be the voice of Europe at home and the voice of home in the EU. We need to turn into megaphones.

A more visible EU puts pressure on executives. People need to know that they are entitled to European help ‒ seamless transit, financial support, medical equipment ‒ and they will demand it themselves.

We are reminded what it means to have a European Union in the first place.

The EU is the food on our supermarket shelves shipped through a thick cobweb of integrated supply chains. The EU is our livelihood from millions of jobs that exist because of the common market.

And we are only as strong as our weakest member.

This everyday face of Europe is often invisible, taken-for-granted. As we watch it falling apart, it is suddenly clear where we are heading without it: a beggar-thy-neighbour dystopia.

Imagine a parallel universe, where crisis strikes, but we are prepared. It's easy if you try.

The commission activates emergency powers, mobilises help for Italy and other hotspots in their hour of need.

Our European Health Agency ramps up medical supply, testing and research. Through smart coordination, we stringently reduce mobility, without disrupting connectivity.

We have the budgetary autonomy for an EU-wide version of Denmark's much-praised program where the state covers 75 percent of salaries if employers do not lay them off.

We enact a Europe-wide freeze on evictions, so people do not lose their homes in the midst of a public health emergency. We design an ambitious recovery plan based on solidarity and following the priorities of our Green Deal. And we have a well-functioning public sphere to tell all that to citizens.

Right now, we are about halfway between utopia and dystopia. This is our watershed moment. We need to imagine another Europe ‒ and fight for it with everything we've got.

Author bio

Katalin Cseh is a Hungarian MEP with the Renew liberal group.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Analysis

Coronavirus: What EU can and can't do

Legal limitations means the European Commission's role when it comes to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic is broadly limited to coordination and support. It is up to member states to work together.

Coronavirus crisis deepens, but solidarity blooms

Despite the horrific impact of the coronavirus on the EU's economy and daily life of its citizens, solidarity is spreading across communities in all member states - with offline and online initiatives.

A coronavirus 'Marshall Plan' alone won't be nearly enough

The 1948-51Marshall Plan provided about €118bn in today's figures in American assistance to European countries. These numbers are dwarfed by prospective needs, and the needs are not just European or American - but global.

Dear EPP: Please, please expel Orban

As a member of Orbán's opposition in Hungary and Renew in parliament, I am here to remind you whom you are choosing between. Is your political home in the pro-European centre or in Orbán's camp of far-right authoritarian nativists?

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Column

EU's Gaza policy: boon for dictators, bad for democrats

While they woo dictators and autocrats, EU policymakers are becoming ever more estranged from the world's democrats. The real tragedy is the erosion of one of Europe's key assets: its huge reserves of soft power, writes Shada Islam.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us