Stop Shutting Borders and Start Working Together
Defeating a virus that respects no boundaries requires collective action. The EU is failing on this front.
Bottlenecks at the Polish border.
Photographer: Rolf Schulten/BloombergApocalyptic visions of hastily-raised national barriers to trade, long lines of trucks gathering at the border, and shortages of essential supplies have haunted Europe ever since the U.K. voted to leave the bloc since 2016. If such a scenario is getting closer to reality, it has little to do with Brexit and everything to do with the coronavirus pandemic.
Erratic border restrictions across the 27-member bloc, put up by around a dozen countries including Spain, Germany and Poland in the name of combating the spread of Covid-19, are starting to bite. Poland’s closure of its borders to non-citizens and travel suspensions have created lines of vehicles stretching at least 10 kilometers (6 miles) on the Lithuanian border, according to Bloomberg News, with bottlenecks also seen in Hungary and Switzerland. While goods are supposed to be unaffected, they’re getting caught up in the delays, with the International Road Transport Union saying European crossings are in chaos.
Food and medicine flows are increasingly at risk: EU adviser Maria Capobianchi warned that internal borders were making it “more difficult” for virus-stricken Italy to receive medical equipment. A fear of shortages has pushed several countries to ban medical-equipment exports to ensure their own citizens get priority.
The danger of unpicking the very fabric of the EU — free movement, frictionless trade, unity and solidarity — is being justified in the name of public health. The Covid-19 case tally has risen recently in Europe, now dubbed the “epicenter” of the outbreak; the amount of combined cases in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the U.K. and the Netherlands now exceeds China’s total of 80,928. Slowing the spread of disease and flattening the infection curve is put forward as the end that justifies the means of beggar-thy-neighbor policies. Spain has declared a state of emergency; France says it’s in a state of war. Few EU leaders talk about Europe when addressing the crisis — the mood is very much every country for itself.