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After pondering over the situation of COVID-19 in Europe, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) has expressed fears that this might bring an end to the European Union (EU). He believes that this is exactly what many are thinking, view the current happenings.
His justifications are based on the current UN disorganization over migration crisis and the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. He predicts that Covid-19 pandemic might just be a sign that the end is near.
Going by the global impact of the pandemic and the growing need for solidarity, he thinks the EU is lagging. “The largest solidarity network we can imagine is the European Union. Yet the EU seems paralyzed,” he said.
In an article, Hollerich has it that, “the return to national interests seems obvious to most member countries.” Looking at the recent tussle over aid packages for EU member states that are heavily impacted by COVID-19, he thinks that, “The crisis seems to favor the individualism of nations.”
He holds that “Europe cannot be built without an idea of Europe, without ideals,” pointing at the increasingly strict migration policies in many European nations, as well as prominent images of overcrowded refugee camps and capsized boats in the Mediterranean. These incidents, he said, “have inflicted deep wounds on the European ideal.”
With the COVID-19 situation, he said a lack of solidarity with heavily hit countries “can become the fatal wound.”
“We see in evidence the difficulty of European solidarity … I fear that for many this will be the disenchantment with the European project,” he said
Pope Francis himself in his Easter message pointed out the wave of nationalist populism that has swept across much of the world as well as many European countries that are now putting individual interests before the good of the whole.