The EU at risk? Italy and Spain raise the alarm

National selfishness wears down the community in the crisis - and the search for a common answer is tough. But somebody doesn't see the situation quite as bleak.

Brussels (dpa) - In the corona crisis, warnings of the disintegration of the European Union are increasing. This danger is not only conjured up by the Prime Ministers of Italy and Spain, but also by EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans and the CDU politician Friedrich Merz.

From the perspective of former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the trial by fire could also strengthen the EU.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many of the 27 countries have been unsettled and acted at the expense of their partners. German export restrictions on protective clothing caused bitterness, as did border controls that hinder the movement of goods and freedom of travel in the internal market. In addition, there is the violent dispute over aid against the economic crisis and possible community bonds, so-called corona bonds.

"The EU is at risk if there is no solidarity," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in the Madrid parliament. Spain, together with Italy and other countries, is demanding corona bonds that Germany and other countries reject.

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the same thing. "It is a major challenge for the existence of Europe and the history of Europe," Conte told the British BBC. "I and other European heads of government have to meet this challenge." The Corona crisis is putting the Italian economic structure to the test. "That is why we need an economic and social response at European level." Conte had previously said in "Bild live": "Otherwise we have to write off Europe, and everyone does their thing."

EU Commission Vice-President Timmermans pointed out that the crisis was particularly hard on the southern EU countries, which is why an unprecedented aid package was needed. The flight into national interests threatens the survival of the EU, wrote Timmermans in the newspaper "de Volkskrant". A "social and economic apocalypse" should not be allowed in any EU country.

CDU presidential candidate Merz also sees the danger. "Unfortunately, Europe's failure is not out of the question. A second euro crisis is also out of the question," he told Rheinische Post (Thursday). "That is why we have to do everything we can to keep Europe together and avoid a second, even deeper euro crisis." He supports aid programs that "show our European solidarity again in the hundreds of billions". Solidarity is not a one-way street.

Former Commission President Juncker did not paint the future of the EU quite as bleakly. "If Europeans give their peoples the impression that they prefer to see everyone digging for themselves in their corner and entrenching themselves there, then there is a danger to the European spirit," Juncker told Vienna's "Standard" (Thursday). "But it would now be the art to see the common as something valuable, not the small-scale."

The crisis opens up the opportunity to show that nation states alone cannot master this situation. "After the crisis, we will be better Europeans," said Juncker. He gave his successor Ursula von der Leyen the advice to keep calm and to make further suggestions. "She hasn't made any mistakes so far." Juncker was President of the EU Commission from 2014 to the end of November 2019.