Even Ursula von der Leyen, now the head of the European Commission and, in the past, a doctor, was unable to provide a competent EU response to the pandemic. The officials did not know or did not even want to know anything about the threat looming over Europe. The consequences were not long in coming.
This is stated in the publication of The Guardian, devoted to how and why Europe was at the epicenter of the pandemic.
According to media reports, the first warnings of outbreaks of a dangerous disease in China were made by employees of the EU Public Health Agency and the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention back in late December. Naturally, no one paid attention to the statements when the Europeans were preparing for the celebration of the New Year.
On January 17, the issue was raised already at the level of the European Commission’s Health Safety Committee, but representatives of only 12 EU countries and a representative of Great Britain participated in the negotiations. Then, officials considered checking coronavirus symptoms at airports ineffective, although 300,000 Europeans were supposed to return from China in January after the Chinese New Year. Moreover, in the following weeks, the governments of the EU countries took sole measures, ignoring the need to coordinate them with the EC committee.
The publication also drew attention to how Ursula von der Leyen behaved. She headed the European Commission at the end of last year, until then she held the post of Minister of Defense of Germany, but until the political career she was a doctor. This factor seemed to allow her to better understand what was happening, but another problem arose.
“The commission should have taken control earlier. Von der Leyen is smart, but she is new to Brussels and relies on a couple of people from Berlin who also have no experience in the commission and what they can. You do not ask Member States if they want coordination, you just coordinate. Health is a national competency, but you can act faster”, – an EU official said on condition of anonymity.
European Commissioner Janez Lenarcic told the publication that the first full-fledged meeting of the crisis coordination committee took place only on January 28. Then the officials were serious about the threat, he says. After the meeting, a press conference was planned, but journalists simply ignored it.
“We went to the press conference, and the press room was almost empty. We called for readiness of all member states, asked to take this seriously and prepare. There was a lot of echo due to the empty room. But we still hoped that there would be echoes in the media the next day. We did not find this, because all the media attention in Brussels at that time was devoted to the last session of the plenary session of the European Parliament, in which members of the United Kingdom participated”, Lenarcic recalls.
Meanwhile, coronavirus was already spreading throughout Europe. So, on January 30, a coronavirus was found in two Chinese tourists in Rome. Only after that, Italy stopped air communication with China. The meeting of EU health ministers was expected, but the preparation took as long as 3 weeks.
Against this background, it turned out that in Europe there is practically no strategic stock of medical masks. Ironically, it was before and has been kept for years. The same France back in 2011 had 1.7 billion masks in stock. Subsequently, all this was simply destroyed as unnecessary.
As a result, EU countries began to impose restrictions on the export of medical products. Masked trucks were stopped literally at the borders. At the same time, one of the sources told the reporters that the personal protective equipment delivered to the ports of Germany and France for the EU was “simply stolen”. By that time, Ursula von der Layen’s attempts to take the lead were already pointless, as were the calls of the European Commissioners for unity and solidarity. Even Germany eventually closed the borders unilaterally, completely paralyzing the EU.
“It’s not a problem to close the border, but you should talk with a neighbor on the other side of it, and some did not. It was wrong and created a lot of problems. Firstly, it prevented the flow of goods, which is dangerous not only for the functioning of the single market, but also for the reaction to coronavirus, because some of these products are necessary, for example, medical equipment, not to mention food”, – Lenarcic said.
The apogee of European shame, however, was the events of February 26. By that time, the number of Italians infected had tripled every 48 hours. The country’s hospitals were already crowded, and the doctors had no masks or equipment. Then Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte turned to his colleagues for help.
An urgent message was transferred from Rome to the headquarters of the European Commission. The request has been uploaded to the EU General Emergency Communication and Information System. What happened next The Guardian calls shock – the distress signal was greeted by silence.
“Not a single EU member country has responded to Italy’s request and to the appeal of the commission for help”, – Lenarchich admitted.
“This meant that not only Italy was not ready. No one is ready”.