European and international cooperation is easy when it costs nothing, says Sigmar Gabriel.
Seldom has it been possible to observe so clearly how China is replacing Western global leadership.
The flags of Italy, the European Union and Bari flutter to half mast to honour the country's dead due to coronavirus disease , in Bari, Italy, March 31, 2020. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo Until now, neither the European Commission nor the European Council has engaged in anything comparable. On the contrary, Italians probably will never forget that, when people in Lombardy were already dying en masse, Germany imposed an export ban on medical supplies to Italy.We are currently witnessing the consequences of fair-weather multilateralism: European and international cooperation is easy when it costs nothing.
While Italy and Spain struggle to contain the pandemic, the Eurogroup succumbed to the same “my-country-first” virus that infected the Greek debt crisis a few years ago. The idea that aid to affected eurozone members should be approved only if they implement major reform programmes is incomprehensible political stupidity.
There is still time to change course in Europe – and internationally. But perhaps the most dangerous consequence of the COVID-19 crisis is that citizens’ only protection is the nation-state.
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