The historic failure of the EU and nationalism in the Covid 19 pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30722/anzjes.vol14.iss2.16167Keywords:
Covid 19, European Union, nationalism, normative power, per capita deathsAbstract
Analysis of per capita death rate figures from officially recorded deaths and credible estimates of excess deaths until late 2021 shows that almost all countries in the European Union (EU) performed poorly during the first two years of the Covid 19 pandemic. This historic failure is linked to previous processes of disintegration, including the impact of prolonged austerity policies on the capacity of public health systems. Forms of nationalism that have obstructed European cooperation during the pandemic are examined, together with low levels of public satisfaction with the EU’s response in core countries. A deeper cause of the EU’s pandemic failure was its inability to achieve significant institutional renewal. One consequence of this failure has been to reveal the EU’s weak normative power and declining global influence, shown by its inability to supply Covid vaccines to associated countries, and by its reluctance to lead a prompt, effective global vaccination effort.
References
References
Adam, D. (2022, January 18). The pandemic’s true death toll: millions more than official counts. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00104-8
Balfour, R., Bomassi, L. and Martinelli, M. (2022). Coronavirus and the Widening Global North-South Gap. Carnegie Europe. https://carnegieendowment.org/files/Balfour_etall_Southern_Mirror_Final.pdf
Boffey, D., Schoen, C., Stockton, B. and Margottini, L. (2020, July 15). Revealed: Italy’s call for urgent help was ignored as coronavirus swept through Europe. Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/15/revealed-the-inside-story-of-europes-divided-coronavirus-response
Bozorgmehr, K., Saint, V., Kaasch, A., Stuckler, D. and Kentikelenis, A. (2020). Covid and the convergence of three crises in Europe. The Lancet Public Health, 5(5), 247-8. https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2468-2667%2820%2930078-5
Bieber, F. (2022). Global Nationalism in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Nationalities Papers, 50(1), 13-25. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2020.35
Borrell, J. (2020, November 13). No to vaccine nationalism, yes to vaccine multilateralism. Blog statement. https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/no-vaccine-nationalism-yes-vaccine-multilateralism_en
Brooks, J. and Butler, J. (2021). Effectiveness of Mask Wearing to Control Community Spread of SARS Co-V-2. Journal of the American Medical Association, 325(10), 998-9. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776536
Brosius, A., van Elsas, E., and de Vreese, C. (2019). Trust in the European Union: Effects of the information environment. European Journal of Communication, 34(1), 57-73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323118810843
Bull, H. (1982). Civilian Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms? Journal of Common Market Studies, 21(2), 149-70. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5965.1982.tb00866.x
Ceron, M. and Palermo, C.M. (2021). The State of the Health (Dis)-Union in the EU: the Legacy of Austerity under the Trial of Covid-19. Working paper. APSA Preprints. https://preprints.apsanet.org/engage/apsa/article-details/615eb173cada1f3a87ce0544
Charamulind, S., Craven, M., Lamb, S., Sabow, A., Singhal, S. and Wilson, M. (2022, March 1). When will the COVID-19 pandemic end? https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/when-will-the-covid-19-pandemic-end
Crist, C. (2022, February 17). COVID rates jump after Denmark lifts all restrictions. Web MD. https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220217/covid-rates-jump-denmark-no-restrictions
Davies, M. (2022, February 9). Covid-19: WHO efforts to bring vaccine manufacturing to Africa are undermined by the drug industry, documents show, British Medical Journal, BMJ 2022; 376:o304. https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o304
Dennison, S. and Puglierin, J (2021, June 9). Crisis of confidence: How Europeans see their place in the world. European Council on Foreign Relations. https://ecfr.eu/publication/crisis-of-confidence-how-europeans-see-their-place-in-the-world/
Economou, C., Kaitelidou, D., Kentikelenis, A., Sissouros, A. and Maresso, A. (2014). The impact of the financial crisis on the health system and health in Greece, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/266380/The-impact-of-the-financial-crisis-on-the-health-system-and-health-in-Greece.pdf
European Commission (2021a). Flash Eurobarometer 494, Attitudes on vaccination against COVID-19, fieldwork May 2021. https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2512
European Commission (2021b). Standard Eurobarometer 95, Spring, First results, fieldwork June-July 2021. https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2532
European Commission (2022). Standard Eurobarometer 96, Winter 2021-22, First results, fieldwork January-February 2022. https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2553
European Council (2020). Special European Council, 20-21 February. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/european-council/2020/02/20-21/
European Council (2021). Meeting Conclusions, 16 December. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/53575/20211216-euco-conclusions-en.pdf
European Council and Parliament (2013). Decision No. 1082/2013/EU of the European Parliament and Council of 22 October 2013 on serious cross-border threats to health. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32013D1082
European Council and Parliament (2021). Regulation (EU) 2021/522 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 March 2021 establishing a Programme for the Union’s action in the field of health. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2021.107.01.0001.01.ENG
European Parliament (2021a). Towards a more resilient Europe post-coronavirus, European Parliamentary Research Service. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2021/659437/EPRS_STU(2021)659437_EN.pdf
European Parliament (2021b). Resilience and Recovery: Public Opinion One Year into the Pandemic. Eurobarometer 95.1, June 2021. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/at-your-service/files/be-heard/eurobarometer/2021/spring-2021-survey/report.pdf
European Parliament (2021c). Public Monitoring at a Glance, June 2021, monthly newsletter. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/at-your-service/files/be-heard/eurobarometer/2020/covid19/en-public-opinion-in-the-time-of-covid19-202106.pdf
Ferrera, M., Miro, J. and Ronchi, S. (2021). Walking the road together? EU polity maintenance during the COVID 19 crisis. West European Politics. 44(5-6), 1329-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2021.1905328
Fischer, J. (2000, May 12). From Confederacy to Federation – Thoughts on the Finality of European Integration, speech, Humboldt University. https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/Chapter9_doc6English.pdf
Fraundorfer, M. and Winn, N. (2021). The emergence of post-Westphalian health governance during the Covid 19 pandemic: the European Health Union. Disasters, 45 (S1), S5-S25. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/disa.12511
Gonzalez, L. (2022, February 16) Why won’t Germany support a Covid 19 vaccine waiver? https://eu.boell.org/en/2022/02/16/why-wont-germany-support-covid-19-vaccine-waiver-anna-cavazzini-answers-and-more-ahead
Greer, S., Fahy, N., Rozenblum, S., Jarman, H., Palm, W., Elliot, H. and Wismar, M. (2019). Everything you always wanted to know about European Union health policies but were afraid to ask, Second, revised edition, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK551086/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK551086.pdf
Gregory, A. (2021, November 18). Mask wearing linked to 53% cut in Covid incidence, global study finds. Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/17/wearing-masks-single-most-effective-way-to-tackle-covid-study-finds
Horby, P., Pfeiffer, D. and Oshitani, H. (2013). Prospects for Emerging Infections in East and Southeast Asia 10 Years after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Emerging Infectious Diseases 19(6), 853-60. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3713834/pdf/12-1783.pdf
Horowitz, J. (2020, November 29). The Lost Days that Made Bergamo a Coronavirus Tragedy. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/29/world/europe/coronavirus-bergamo-italy.html
House of Commons, UK. (2021). Coronavirus: lessons learned to date. Sixth Report of the Health and Social Care Committee and Third Report of the Science and Technology Committee of Session 2021-22 (October). https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/7496/documents/78687/default/
Jones, E. (2020). COVID 19 and the EU Economy: Try Again, Fail Better. Survival 62(4) 2020, 81-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/00396338.2020.1792124
Kahn, S. (2021, December 21). The Covid 19 pandemic, what lessons for the European Union? Schuman Foundation policy paper. https://www.robert-schuman.eu/en/doc/questions-d-europe/qe-617-en.pdf
Kampmark, B. and Kurecic, P. (2022). Vaccine nationalism: Competition, EU parochialism and COVID-19. Journal of Global Faultlines, 9(1), 9-20. https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/jglobfaul.9.1.0009
Kirpich, A., Shishkin, A., Weppelmann, T., Perez Tchernov, A., Skums, P. and Gankin, Y. (2022). Excess mortality in Belarus during the Covid-19 pandemic as the case study of a country with limited non-pharmaceutical interventions and limited reporting. Nature Scientific Reports 12: 5475. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09345-z.pdf
Kobak, D. (2021, February). Excess mortality reveals Covid’s true toll in Russia. Significance 18(1): 16-19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8013319/pdf/SIGN-18-16.pdf
Krastev, I. and Leonard, M., (2021, September 1). Europe’s invisible divides: How Covid 19 is polarising European politics. European Council on Foreign Relations. https://ecfr.eu/wp-content/uploads/Europes-invisible-divides-How-covid-19-is-polarising-European-politics.pdf
Kratochvil, P. and Sychra, Z. (2019). The end of democracy in the EU? The Eurozone crisis and the EU’s democratic deficit. Journal of European Integration, 41(2), 169-85. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2019.1569001
Kwong, L. (2021, September 22). Evidence shows that, yes, masks prevent COVID-19 – and surgical masks are the way to go. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/evidence-shows-that-yes-masks-prevent-covid-19-and-surgical-masks-are-the-way-to-go-167963
Leigh, M. (2020, December 14). Relaunch or disintegration? What Covid 19 means for the future of Europe. LSE European Politics and Policy Blog. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/108305/1/europpblog_2020_12_14_relaunch_or_disintegration_what_covid_19_means.pdf
MacIntyre, R. (2022). Why Covid-19 will never become endemic. The Saturday Paper. January 15-21. https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2022/01/15/why-covid-19-will-never-become-endemic/164216520013155#hrd
McIntyre, N., Thomas, T., Duncan, P. and Swann, G. (2022, January 17). What do we know about the 175,000 people who died with Covid in the UK? Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/16/what-do-we-know-about-people-who-died-covid-uk
Malesevic, S. (2022). Imagined Communities and Imaginary Plots: Nationalisms, Conspiracies and Pandemics in the Longue Duree. Nationalities Papers, 50(1), 45-60. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2020.94
Manners, I. (2002). Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms? Journal of Common Market Studies, 40(2), 235-58. doi:10.1111/1468-5965.00353
Marchi, L. (2022). Power in practice: EU member states’ early negotiations on Covid-19 burden sharing. Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies. 14(1), 18-30.
Mishra, S., Scott, J., Laydon, D., Flaxman, S., Gandy, A., Mellan, T., Unwin, J., Vollmer, M., Coupland, H., Ratmann, O., Monod, M., Zhu. H., Cori, A., Gaythorpe, K., Wittles, L. Whittaker, C., Donnelly, C., Ferguson, N. and Bhatt, S. (2021). Comparing the responses of the UK, Sweden and Denmark to Covid 19 using counterfactual modelling. Nature Scientific Reports 11(16342). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95699-9
Nature (2022, March 29). Time is running out for COVID vaccine patent waivers. Editorial in Nature, 603, 764. https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-022-00878-x/d41586-022-00878-x.pdf
OECD. (2022, February 25). The Covid Crisis in Ukraine. https://www.oecd.org/eurasia/competitiveness-programme/eastern-partners/COVID-19-CRISIS-IN-UKRAINE.pdf
Paterlini, M. (2021). What now for Sweden and covid-19? British Medical Journal. 2021; 375:n3081. https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/375/bmj.n3081.full.pdf
Pitty, R. (2014). Disintegrating European Austerity in Greece and Germany. In B. Isakhan and S. Slaughter (Eds), Democracy and Crisis: Democratising Governance in the Twenty-First Century (pp. 125-46). Palgrave.
Siani-Davies, P. (2017). Crisis in Greece, Hurst.
Steinbruner, J. (2020). Principles of Global Security, Brookings.
Storeng, K., de Bengy Puyvallee, A. and Stein, F. (2021). COVAX and the rise of the ‘super public private partnership’ for global health. Global Public Health pre-print. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17441692.2021.1987502
The Economist (2022). Tracking Covid 19 excess deaths across countries. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker
The New York Times (2022). Tracking Coronavirus Vaccinations Around the World. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html
Timonin, S., Klimkin, I., Shkolnikov, V., Andreev, E., McKee, M. and Leon, D. (2022). Excess mortality in Russia compared to high income countries: An analysis of monthly series of 2020. SSM Population Health, 17 (March) 101006. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.101006
Troianovski, A. (2021, April 10). ‘You Can’t Trust Anyone’: Russia’s Hidden Covid Toll is an Open Secret. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/world/europe/covid-russia-death.html
Varoufakis, Y. (2017). Adults in the Room: My battle with Europe’s deep establishment, Bodley Head.
Varoufakis, Y. (2021, April 10). A Covid-19 counterfactual for Europe. https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2021/04/10/a-covid-19-counterfactual-for-europe-project-syndicate/
Visontay, E. (2022, March 16). Global powers inch closer to agreement to waive Covid vaccine patents. Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/16/global-powers-inch-closer-to-agreement-to-waive-covid-vaccine-patents
Wang, H., Paulson., K., Pease, S., Watson, S., Comfort, H., Zheng, P., Aravkin, A., Bisigano, C., Barber, R., Alam, T., Fuller, J., May, E., Phan Jones, D., Frisch, M., Abbafati, C., Adolph, C., Allorant, A., Amlag, J., Bang-Jenson, B., … Murray, C. (2022, March 10). Estimating excess mortality due to the Covid-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis of Covid-19-related mortality, 2020-21. The Lancet, 399 (10334), 1513-36. https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2821%2902796-3
Wang, Z. (2021). From Crisis to Nationalism: The Conditioned Effects of the Covid 19 Crisis on Neo-nationalism in Europe. Chinese Political Science Review, 6(1), 20-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41111-020-00169-8
Weissmann, M. (2013). A European Strategy Towards East Asia. Occasional paper number 19, April, Swedish Institute of International Affairs. https://www.ui.se/globalassets/ui.se-eng/publications/ui-publications/a-european-strategy-towards-east-asia-moving-from-good-intentions-to-action.compressed-1.pdf
Worldometers (2022). Daily update of officially reported Covid 19 figures by country. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Submission of an original manuscript to ANZJES will be taken to mean that it is an original work not previously published.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 Licence that allows others, including the author, to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the original author and initial publication in this journal.