Perhaps we should have another pandemic with member states fighting over vaccine supply, while richer countries nab early deals and the east and south suffer, then see how much the European project is in deep trouble. twitter.com/PaulJBelcher/s…
So much of this stuff is judging the football season at Christmas. There is a long way to go and Europe’s vaccination performance is poor. But equity of distribution between member states is good – and important.
And while there may have been overmuch concern about public money, it’s hardly surprising in a body that is not a nation state and is regularly held up by Europe’s press as wasteful and inefficient.
Are there deep things that need fixing in the European structure – yes. Is the vaccination performance poor so far? – also yes. Is vaccination a sign that the EU is doomed – no.
In August if Europe is out of lockdown, if vaccination has been completed on roughly the same timescale as UK and US, and if the recovery fund is rolling out, this sort of analysis will be forgotten.
And that will be a shame, because there are deep lessons to be learned, and things that have gone right that need extending *cough*common debt*cough* – but it doesn’t help that reflection then to scream now that the sky is falling in.
Originally posted as a thread of 6 tweets on Twitter on 20 March 2021. View the original thread.