The EU response to the COVID-19 pandemic : achieving relevance, mobilising solidarity and preparing for the future

Abstract

On March 27th, 2020, the EUI’s School of Transnational Governance gathered eighteen reputed social scientists, public health experts, and policy makers in a virtual workshop to discuss the short and medium-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the European Union (EU). The crisis’ impact already reverberates deeply and widely in the European political sphere, social fabric and economic architecture. In spite of health being an exclusive Member State competence, EU institutions have been asked to respond to the immediate health threat presented by the contagion and to foresee and address consequences for the European economy and key policy areas of the Union, from the monetary union to the free movement of people.