Oh dear 
The EU is stumbling through this crisis as it has done through previous ones like the migration and the financial crises. The bloc is not about to disintegrate but scars will remain in countries that felt the chilly absence of EU solidarity in their hour of coronavirus need.
"This has not been our finest moment," a diplomat from an influential EU country told me. "Our response has come late and has been marred by nationalism. Solidarity went out the window with the first coronavirus victim."
The diplomat spoke of France and Germany's initial refusal to export medical protective equipment, meaning Italy was forced to beg for some.
He complained of the damage done to the whole of the single market as EU countries shut borders with one another in an attempt to protect themselves from the spread of the virus.
Then there's the recent ugly and very public debate about coronavirus debt-sharing. Spain and Italy demanded it, in the forms of coronabonds. Wealthier, cautious Germany and the Netherlands gave a flat no.
Again, each country prioritised national concerns over the EU as a whole. Understandable, but hardly a poster child for European cohesion.
The EU is stumbling through this crisis as it has done through previous ones like the migration and the financial crises. The bloc is not about to disintegrate but scars will remain in countries that felt the chilly absence of EU solidarity in their hour of coronavirus need.
"This has not been our finest moment," a diplomat from an influential EU country told me. "Our response has come late and has been marred by nationalism. Solidarity went out the window with the first coronavirus victim."
The diplomat spoke of France and Germany's initial refusal to export medical protective equipment, meaning Italy was forced to beg for some.
He complained of the damage done to the whole of the single market as EU countries shut borders with one another in an attempt to protect themselves from the spread of the virus.
Then there's the recent ugly and very public debate about coronavirus debt-sharing. Spain and Italy demanded it, in the forms of coronabonds. Wealthier, cautious Germany and the Netherlands gave a flat no.
Again, each country prioritised national concerns over the EU as a whole. Understandable, but hardly a poster child for European cohesion.
