Coronavirus: The European Union Unravels
In recent weeks, EU member states have closed their borders, banned exports of critical supplies and withheld humanitarian aid. The European Central Bank, the guarantor of the European single currency, has treated with unparalleled disdain the eurozone's third-largest economy, Italy, in its singular hour of need. The member states worst affected by the pandemic - Italy and Spain - have been left by the other member states to fend for themselves.
Faced with an existential threat, EU
member states, far from joining together to confront the pandemic as a unified
bloc, instinctively are returning to pursuing the national interest. After
years of criticizing U.S. President Donald J. Trump for pushing an "America
First" policy, European leaders are reverting to the very nationalism they
have publicly claimed to despise.