During the last few months, the EFN has been monitoring how the EU institutions, and especially the European Commission, have been responding to the latest events in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The European Commission is coordinating a common European response to the coronavirus outbreak. This response aims to take action and reinforce Europe’s public health sectors while mitigating the socio-economic impact of this health crisis. They are coordinating with the Member States to make sure that their national responses are aligned, and it collects information about how the virus is spreading nationally and measures taken to stop it.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the EU Agency currently playing the biggest role during the pandemic, is reporting daily on the situation of COVID-19 across all EU countries and the UK. They have also elaborated an interactive dashboard tracking the number of COVID-19 cases in the EU and worldwide.
The European Council, serving as a forum for the EU Member States to coordinate, saw the agreement (last July) on the soon-to-be-implemented addition of a recovery plan for Europe.
The European Parliament has been strongly advocating worldwide for the role of the EU as a leader by highlighting all the EU institutions are doing to ensure economic recovery and improving the public health situation, as well as initiating the virtual campaign #EuropeansAgainstCovid19. This campaign collects European stories of solidarity with the hope to encourage all EU citizens to stand strong during the pandemic.
Lastly, the Publications Office of the European Union gave the green-light to the publication of many EU-written scientific publications on COVID-19 and its effect on the EU citizens.