Stumbling into its moment of truth: the EU’s debate over its economic response to covid-19
“We are at a moment of truth, which is to decide whether the European Union is a political project or just a market project. I think it’s a political project… We need financial transfers and solidarity, if only so that Europe holds on”, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with the Financial Times. In yesterday’s virtual EU Council Meeting, the EU tried to rise to this challenge. But did it succeed? Host Mark Leonard is joined by Henrik Enderlein, President at the Hertie School & Director of the Jacques Delors Centre think tank and Jana Puglierin, head of ECFR’s Berlin Office: what have been the expectations for and conclusion of the meeting? What happened to the swirling coronabonds discussion? And what’s Germany’s take on Macron’s vision and way forward for Europe?
This podcast was recorded on 24 April 2020
Bookshelf
- “Macron, Merkel, and Europe's 'moment of truth'” by Tara Varma and Jonathan Hackenbroich
- “The Great Transformation” by Karl Polanyi
- “The New Progressivism: A Grassroots Alternative to the Populism of our Times” by David Amiel & Ismael Emelien