DISINFO: Coronavirus has destroyed the European Union
SUMMARY
Coronavirus has destroyed the European Union. The EU only remembered about coordination now when the coronavirus crisis in Europe has already been partially overcome. The pandemic showed the union’s inability to take coordinated action and left the countries most affected by it, including Italy, alone with the terrible virus.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that the EU is collapsing as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Coronavirus did challenge the EU's crisis response mechanisms. However, to cushion the blow to people’s livelihoods and the economy, the European Commission has managed to adopt a comprehensive economic response to the outbreak, applied the full flexibility of the EU fiscal rules, has revised its State Aid rules and proposed to set up a €37 billion Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative to provide liquidity to small businesses and the health care sector. The EU also created the first-ever stockpile of medical equipment. Read more on EU response to the COVID-19 outbreak here and here. As for Italy, there are numerous examples of solidarity among the EU and the individual Member States. For example, German hospitals have offered to treat critical coronavirus patients from France as well as taking in patients from Italy and the Czech Republic has sent masks to Italy. On March 18th, the European Union also received a Chinese aid package, including masks and 50,000 testing kits that were fully allocated to Italy, as Rome faced the most urgent needs among member states in the coronavirus crisis. On March 13th, the European Union proposed a Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative, envisaging EUR 835 million for Italy. On March 26th, the European Parliament unanimously approved the initiative. European leaders said they would spend hundreds of billions of euros to prevent the coronavirus outbreak from provoking a deep recession or financial crisis. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that the European Union would allocate up to €100 billion ($109.62 billion) to the hardest-hit countries, starting with Italy, to help cover the cost of lost wages and to preserve jobs. Read the similar cases: Response measures to coronavirus demonstrate the decline of the US and EU, Coronavirus will cause the dissolution of the EU and NATO and The myth about "European unity" is destroyed.