On Friday, EU health ministers will convene in Brussels for their latest extraordinary meeting aimed at boosting cooperation and creating some consistency in countering the coronavirus epidemic.
One EU diplomat said a goal of Friday’s health ministers’ meeting was to further improve coordination of different national approaches.
From the outset, EU capitals responded with a motley array of approaches aimed at containment that, at best, yielded spotty results.
Italy and the Czech Republic were among the first countries to stop flights to China, yet Italy has been hit by the worst outbreak in Europe.
Lithuania has declared a state of emergency before the country even had a case.
Spain had focused on an outbreak in the Canary Islands, even locking down an entire resort hotel, but recently discovered that a man who died in Valencia on February 13 was infected, suggesting the virus has been circulating far longer than officials knew.
Adding to a sense of disarray, the EU institutions have also adopted different responses, with the Parliament restricting access to its Brussels buildings and canceling many events, while the Commission and Council largely continued operating as normal. The Parliament for days also resisted canceling its monthly plenary in Strasbourg, only to abruptly reverse course on Thursday evening and switch the session to Brussels.
On Monday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held a news conference at the EU Emergency Response Coordination Centre to announce the creation of a new “corona response team.”
Also on Monday, the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU shifted the EU’s Integrated Political Crisis Response effort into “full activation” mode — the highest level of joint emergency coordination between the Commission, the Council, the European External Action Service, member countries, and other “relevant” entities.
