COVID19: a chance to close East-West gaps?

COVID19 can be an opportunity to reduce economic and political gaps between the East and the West of Europe provided new policies and resources are found. As emergency powers deepen undemocratic developments and the EU tools seem limited, questions about rule of law conditionality will emerge.

Show Notes

Just as North-South oppositions structured the eurozone debate, most analysts expect the pandemic to deepen economic, social and political divides between Eastern and Western Europe: recovery strategies may diverge inside and outside the Eurozone, and the states of emergency and “rally round the flag” reflexes may favour power grabs by already illiberal governments.  

However these exceptional circumstances may also provide a chance to close this pre-existing gap by mobilising resources and policies that were not imaginable before the pandemic: stronger tools in rule of law enforcement, a larger budget and new policies are debate in this episode. 

Listen to the debate with: 

Ramona Coman is President of the Institute for European Studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles. Guest editor.  

Victor Negrescu is Member of the European Parliament. 

Carlos Closa is Director of the research area "European, Transnational and Global Governance" in the Global Governance Programme.  

Moderation: Carlos Carnicero Urabayen. 

Technical production and edition: Franco Delle Donne. 

An OpenEUpodcast produced by Agenda Pública.

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What is Europe after coronavirus?

A series of ten podcasts by the Jean Monnet OpenEUdebate network. Each podcast features debates among experts from academia, civil society and politics on the effect of the pandemic on different scenarios for the future of the European Union.

This podcast series has been made with the financial support of the European Union Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). The podcasts only reflect the views of the speakers and the Commission and the Agency cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.