Write a statement
Budget: €8 – €30 EUR
Background information:
The COVID-19 pandemic caused an exogenous shock that tested the resilience of European integration. The crisis has demonstrated how difficult European cooperation can be, especially in policy areas where the EU has only a legal competence to support member states. National uncoordinated responses threaten core European institutions, yet the crisis is also an opportunity to advance integration and reinforce EU objectives.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “The EU's comprehensive response to the pandemic has been unprecedented in scale and delivered in record time, proving the importance of working jointly in Europe. Together, we have achieved what no EU Member State could have done alone. But we have also learned what worked well and where we could do better in future pandemics. We must now turn these lessons into changes.”
Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, said: “Despite the fact that health policy at European level is still in its nascent years, the EU's response to the pandemic was ample, and has included a wide range of unprecedented initiatives that were designed and delivered in record time. We acted with speed, ambition and coherence. This was achieved also thanks to the unprecedented solidarity demonstrated amongst EU institutions that ensured a united EU response. This is one great lesson we must continue to build on. But there is no time, nor room for complacency. Today, we are identifying specific areas where we already know more can and should be done to secure a more effective health response in the future. This crisis can be a catalyst for furthering European integration in the areas where it is most needed.”
The European Parliament will hold an online hearing on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis. The hearing needs to provide MEPs with more insights from leading experts in the area of International and European Governance on the key lesson learned from the COVID-19 crisis, and on the need to transform the ad hoc solutions that were used to deal with the crisis into permanent structures that will allow the EU to be better prepared in the future.
Assignment:
You have to defend why we (as an organization) in any case do not want more European integration regarding problems (such as) COVID-19. You have to imagine that you are the representative of an organization, country, NGO or think tank. You are the one who participates in a public hearing of the European Parliament (EP) and you will have to come up with lessons on what has to be improved (and/or what went wrong) and what can be done better in future crises. So for example you are not really in favor of Europe's ideas for jointly solving these kinds of problems.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused an exogenous shock that tested the resilience of European integration. The crisis has demonstrated how difficult European cooperation can be, especially in policy areas where the EU has only a legal competence to support member states. National uncoordinated responses threaten core European institutions, yet the crisis is also an opportunity to advance integration and reinforce EU objectives.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “The EU's comprehensive response to the pandemic has been unprecedented in scale and delivered in record time, proving the importance of working jointly in Europe. Together, we have achieved what no EU Member State could have done alone. But we have also learned what worked well and where we could do better in future pandemics. We must now turn these lessons into changes.”
Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, said: “Despite the fact that health policy at European level is still in its nascent years, the EU's response to the pandemic was ample, and has included a wide range of unprecedented initiatives that were designed and delivered in record time. We acted with speed, ambition and coherence. This was achieved also thanks to the unprecedented solidarity demonstrated amongst EU institutions that ensured a united EU response. This is one great lesson we must continue to build on. But there is no time, nor room for complacency. Today, we are identifying specific areas where we already know more can and should be done to secure a more effective health response in the future. This crisis can be a catalyst for furthering European integration in the areas where it is most needed.”
The European Parliament will hold an online hearing on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis. The hearing needs to provide MEPs with more insights from leading experts in the area of International and European Governance on the key lesson learned from the COVID-19 crisis, and on the need to transform the ad hoc solutions that were used to deal with the crisis into permanent structures that will allow the EU to be better prepared in the future.
Assignment:
You have to defend why we (as an organization) in any case do not want more European integration regarding problems (such as) COVID-19. You have to imagine that you are the representative of an organization, country, NGO or think tank. You are the one who participates in a public hearing of the European Parliament (EP) and you will have to come up with lessons on what has to be improved (and/or what went wrong) and what can be done better in future crises. So for example you are not really in favor of Europe's ideas for jointly solving these kinds of problems.