With the coronavirus continuing to spread, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned in a speech yesterday in Berlin that the EU is now facing the "biggest test" to the union yet. The Chancellor urged European nations to work together to rebuild once the deadly pandemic currently gripping the continent has subsided.
Angela Merkel
Evoking a similar tone, France also issued a blunt warning that the European Union is about to face the deepest and longest recession since World War II, with many workers furloughed and companies putting production on hold.
Over 75,000 people have now died worldwide, some 50,000 of them in Europe. The daily death toll has now begun to drop in hard hit Spain, Italy and France, but it is still speeding up in the US.
Frau Merkel called for strength in the face of the crisis.
“In my view… the European Union stands before the biggest test since its founding,” Merkel warned, a day ahead of a key conference of Eurozone finance ministers to agree an economic rescue plan for the bloc.
“Everyone is just as affected as the other, and therefore, it is in everyone’s interest, and it is in Germany’s interest for Europe to emerge stronger from this test,” she said, following criticism from harder-hit countries. “The answer can only be: More Europe, a stronger Europe and a well-functioning Europe,” she continued.
In language that evoked memories of the euro crisis a decade ago, Merkel said that her country's fortunes rested on the wellbeing of the EU as a whole, pushing against criticism that Germany lacked solidarity with its partners.
Southern EU nations, primarily Italy, Spain and France, have been urging Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and other northern partners to introduce common debt facilities to dampen the worse economic impact of the virus.
But leaders from the richer northern nations have resisted the calls — with Germany and the Netherlands in the lead — fearing their taxpayers will be left to foot the bill.
Some countries that had havoc wreaked upon them by the virus have reported lower numbers of new infections and deaths, offering a ray of hope that the worst has passed.
Norway announced yesterday that the epidemic was under control, and Austria said that it may begin easing the lockdown.
However, in the UK, the death toll pushed over 5,000 with more than 400 new fatalities reported. The country's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was tested as positive for Covid-19 ten days ago, has been moved to an intensive care unit, though his officials still insist that he is in day-to-day control of the UK government.
The pandemic has hit nearly every country in the world. Almost 4 billion people - over half the world's population - are confined to their homes or under some form of lockdown.
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