European Union reponse to COVID-19

Only one word says it all. Pathetic. As you have been reading, European Union (EU) response to COVID19 has been nothing short of being on the criminal side. When Italy was asking for medical supplies, some of the nations banned the export of it and also closed their borders. Same thing happened with Spain too. Now the Virus shutting down hard hit Italy and Spain and they want to have more aid to support their economies, the richer countries, particularly Germany and Netherlands are opposing it. Particularly the issue of Eurobond has been very contentious as the bond will be collective liability of all nations involved and so the wealthier and more frugal north is a big NO to it. Although EU has already apologized to Italy and Spain for the botched response to come to Italy’s aid but memories will linger on and there is a now a doubt that after all this over Italian may start to rethink their relation with this mess of a Union which is when it comes to crisis is nothing short of a disunion with every country fending of itself, closing off their borders and restricting the supply of essential medical equipment.

The problem from the start was that Europe, despite sharing common religion (Christianity) and almost shared culture still acts like they are separate countries when it comes time to act for a common cause like defense and now the Virus, which has exposed how disunited and disjointed the alliance has become.The virus has also exposed how the supposedly united borders are now shut for anybody not of that particular countries. Every country in the European Union is now acting like an independent country as they shut borders and isolate them from other countries in the Union. They may still call themselves European but in truth they are independent countries with independent Presidents and budgets and when it comes to finances, Germany and the rich north does not want to underwrite the supposedly financially irresponsible south like Italy, Spain and other countries. It does make sense that the rich north should be more assertive in how their money is going to be used but it defeats the purpose of being a single United States of Europe. People do act like they are not part of a Union but still belong to their individual countries and speak their own language. This Virus has exposed the lies that underlie the whole fake notion of belonging to one country and it people in Italy and other poorer south have started to doubt about this whole European Union experiment.