By Andreea Mosila
Romania provides an excellent example of how nationalist and populist messaging significantly threatened the pandemic response.
COVID-19 Series
Opinion pieces published in EuropeNow do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Council for European Studies.
By Christoph Butterwegge
What does it mean to be unhoused or unsheltered in a prosperous country that defines itself as a social welfare state?
By Jazmine Contreras
Baudet challenges the increased state attention on the Holocaust and Jewish victimhood…
By Joseph Keady
German activists’ complicated relationship with the United States contributes to their capacity to foment a cohesive transatlantic far-right.
By Siún Carden
Far from cities and geographically distinguished from mainland rural places, Scotland’s islands are varied in landscape, economy, and community make-up, yet share key challenges and are increasingly positioned to address these together in the context of national and regional government.
By Diana-Andreea Mandiuc
Just two days after the virus spread was categorized as a pandemic, Europe recorded the largest number of cases outside of China (Ghebreyesus, 2020), testing the Union’s ability to cope with emergency health issues.
By Răzvan-Victor Sassu and Eliza Vaș
The new coronavirus has drastically reshuffled both economies and societies in the past months. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described the situation as being a “crisis like no other” with “an uncertain recovery” and a “catastrophic hit” to the global labour market, with more than 430 million jobs losses in the first two quarters.
By Angela Cacciarru and Antonio Paesano
There are many factors intervening in a society’s ability to combat disease. While Italy was featured everywhere in global media as the place where COVID-19 was out of control and the situation desperately stark, the spreading of the virus was showing more and more its uneven impact.
By Ruxandra Paul
Migrants have always been both essential to modern economies and objects of suspicion, but the Coronavirus pandemic has brought this tension to a head both in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries.
Translated by Ghjulia Romiti
I wander through paris, empty / of our laughter of our frenzy / absent from our absence / the spring sun / shines uselessly / stripped of our meanderings / of the lovers’ kisses
In this series, we feature a spotlight on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its connections to European politics, society, and culture.
By Thomas Henökl
During the second-longest summit session in the European Council’s history, in the early morning hours of June 21, 2020, and after almost four days of tough negotiations, the twenty-seven heads of state and government finally agreed on a €1,074 billion long-term budget and COVID-19 recovery fund.
By Alyssa Granacki
Reading these recent pieces, one might believe that the Decameron is mostly about the Black Death of 1348, but the plague takes up a relatively tiny fraction of the work. After the Introduction, Boccaccio’s brigata—the group of seven young women and three young men who narrate the Decameron’s tales—escapes ravaged Florence.
By Alexandru Pieptea
Although many EU countries have faced challenges brought on by the coronavirus, there are differences in the extent of required measures. Several countries have decided to take measures in terms of closing some or all educational institutions for varying time periods.
Interviewed by Juliane Mendelsohn
I think we are learning that the European project still requires more from all of us: more unity, more compassion, and more selfless solidarity.
By Jean Beaman
Minority populations are responding to a violence that is not new, but rather an extension of the violence of French colonialism. The quarantine period reveals how some individuals, even those who are citizens, are forever seen as suspicious.
By Anke S. Biendarra
While mutual support might work reasonably well on an interpersonal level, the Coronavirus outbreak is rapidly revealing the limits of solidarity when it comes to nation states, confirming that it is not a genuine “European” value per se, but is borrowed from the national political vocabulary.
By Peter Debaere
If we continue to scapegoat globalization instead of being willing to share more equitably the benefits of technological progress and of globalization, we will fail to bring about the international cooperation we need.
By Jennifer McWeeny
Much like Beauvoir and her famous entourage, we, too, are contending with an unexpected and catastrophic visitor. The coronavirus pandemic therefore allows us to enter the historical experience of these French thinkers more deeply than we have before.
