STRASBOURG – We struggle to remember it, perhaps because we prefer to remove that nightmare. But just four years ago theEurope and the world, in lockdown for the pandemic, they didn’t know how humanity would emerge from it. So this was also the European legislature of the fight against COVID-19.
The arrival of Covid in Europe
The very first cases of Covid-19 in the European Union are registered in Bordeaux, IN Franceon January 24, 2020. TheItaly it is instead the first European country to suffer a large wave, but as of March 17, 2020, all EU members have already recorded at least one death. Since March 13th, Europe has even been declared by the World Health Organization as the epicenter of the epidemic: it will be so until May 22nd, when the “primacy” will pass to South America. On our continent, as well as throughout the world, a bitter debate is opening up on lockdowns, health and personal freedoms. If the first responses are national, also because health security is the responsibility of individual states, the EU has already begun to support and coordinate them.
Covid, Kraken variant, ECDC: “Dominant in Europe in 1-2 months, but does not cause more serious disease”. WHO: “Use masks indoors”
by Elena Dusi
January 13, 2023
On February 28, EU states join forces to purchase gloves, masks, ventilators and swabs, and shortly afterwards also to facilitate their production. March 17th the European Union closes its borders: Non-essential entries from outside the block are prohibited. It reopens on July 1st, but only for visitors from 15 countries: among them Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but not for example from the USA, Brazil and Russia. On 21 July 2020, European leaders agreed on a 750 billion economic stimulus package, the Next Generation Eu. In the meantime, the strategy for the community purchase of vaccines on behalf of the Member States, and distribution begins at the end of the year. Since then the EU Commission has secured 4.2 billion doses, and in August 2023 84.8% of adults had been vaccinated. Thanks to vaccines, according to an ECDC study, as of November 2021, 470 thousand lives had been saved in Europe. A success that bears the signature of the EU.
The report of the Special Commission
But what has the Covid emergency taught the European Union? What lessons did you learn from it? In July 2023 he presented his final report there European Parliament Special Committee on the Covid-19 Pandemic (Covi), established in March 2022, and the chamber approved it with 385 votes in favour, 193 against and 63 abstentions. It emerged that, taking inspiration from the reaction to Covid, “the MEPs want to strengthen the European Health Union and the resilience of national health systems in view of future challenges”.
“In Europe, a brutal stop to anti-Covid measures”. The WHO beats Italy
by Elena Dusi
March 23, 2022
Among the most impactful proposals are the strengthening of the EU’s strategic autonomy on medicines, transparency in joint procurement activities and greater parliamentary control at both European and national level on the use of emergency laws. The importance of translating these lessons into the challenge of cancer and rare diseases has emerged.
“The Covi commission report is the result of dialogue, consensus and rigor. The EU’s response to the pandemic has been exemplary with regards to the purchase of vaccines, NextGenerationEU funds and preparation for future health emergencies – declared the Spanish popular Dolors Montserrat, Rapporteur for the Covi Commission – We must further strengthen the EU to protect our health workers, to ensure we do not overlook any disease and to help the most vulnerable. We must also promote research, fight fake news and cyber attacks and create a competitive pharmaceutical sector capable of strengthening the EU’s strategic autonomy in healthcare.”
“The clearest lesson of the pandemic is also the simplest – declared the Vice President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas – We Europeans are more effective when we act together.”
What do Europeans think?
And the Europeans? I agree? The polls show that for them health is one of the priority subjects, even more so after the pandemic. In an Ipsos-Euronews poll published earlier this month, we see how the relative majority of Union citizens, 40%, are satisfied with the EU’s response to Covid, compared to 28% who have a negative view and the 32% who have neither negative nor positive opinion. Among the countries that approve Brussels’ actions are Portugal, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Poland and the Netherlands.
