The coronavirus pandemic has effectively destroyed the global governance model and the EU should play a key role in rebuilding the international order, the bloc’s High Representative Vice-President Josep Borrell told reporters on Thursday (7 May).
“The coronavirus pandemic has ended up blowing up the model of multilateral governance that was tottering already over the past few years,” Borrell said.
He described the current international context as a “multipolar disorder,” with the US leadership missing and a growing tension between Washington and Beijing exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.
This could be an opportunity for the EU though. “In that new order that would need to be built out of the global disorder, Europe could play a role. In what way, it will depend on its internal unity,” Borrell argued.
“Europe cannot be strong in the world if it does not build internal unity,” he said. “The EU should learn the lesson and, in my opinion, go into further integration,” including on health care, Borrell argued, which “must have a European dimension.”
In the rest of the world, health has become a security issue, in Europe, it is an integration matter, he argued.
While national responses dominated at the beginning of the crisis, Borrell praised the “convergence and cooperation” that is prevailing now and said that whether nationalism and populism will grow will entirely depend on how the EU responds to the COVID-19 outbreak and on whether citizens feel protected by the Union. (Euractiv)
