Coronavirus: not the EU’s finest hour?

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a severe test for the European Union as well as for its member-states: a test in which European cooperation has often been found wanting, in particular when it came to its vaccine programme. But this test has also led to a deepening of European solidarity, manifested most prominently in the European recovery fund.

What have been the stresses and strains caused by the pandemic on the EU and the member-states? Has the EU managed to turn the pandemic into an argument for European cooperation, or will it go down  as having hindered the ability of the EU nations to respond? Will the EU emerge stronger or weaker from this crisis, and will the pandemic have pulled us together or apart?

Speakers:

• Isabel de la Mata Barrancos, Principal Advisor for Health and Crisis management, European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety
• Dr Iveta Nagyova, President of the European Public Health Association, EUPHA & Head of Department (Social and Behavioural Medicine), Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovakia 
• Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions, Leiden University & former adviser to Herman van Rompuy, first President of the European Council

Chair: Dr Claudia Sternberg, Head of Academic Programming, UCL European Institute

Further information

• Participation is free but we kindly ask that you register using the link provided.
• Chat will be disabled for attendees, but if you have a question for the panel, please submit it into the Q&A feature of the webinar. 
• In the second half of the event, we will select as many questions as possible within the time. You will be given the option to unmute yourself to ask the question. 
• Attendees will not be able to turn their camera on.
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• This webinar will be recorded and made available on our podcast platform 'UCL Political Science: Public Events'

This event is free.