Europe’s way out of the coronavirus crisis: from self-interest to solidarity?

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The coronavirus crisis brought about financial hardship for the European Union, and many agree that a recovery fund would be needed to overcome it. In the beginning, countries like Italy and Spain, in particular, felt left alone in dealing with this health, social and economic crisis. And still, support for financial burden-sharing is low in the “frugal” countries which would be the net contributors to such a recovery fund. But does this mean there is a general lack of solidarity in Europe? Can solidarity go in line with member states’ self-interest? In this week’s podcast Mark Leonard is joined by ECFR’s heads of offices Jana Puglierin (Berlin), Arturo Varvelli (Rome) and José Ignacio Torreblanca (Madrid) to discuss how solidarity is perceived across Europe and what ECFR’s Solidarity Tracker can teach us about pan-European solidarity during the covid-19 crisis.

Find the European Solidarity Tracker here.

This podcast was recorded on 17 June 2020.

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