For more than a decade, the European Union has been beset by successive crises, from the financial and Eurozone crises to the migration/refugee crisis, security threats in the neighbourhood and at home, and even Brexit. Each of these crises has sown deep divisions among and within member states, challenging the Union’s collective action and testing the viability of the entire European project. While the EU and the member states are still struggling with the consequences of this poly-crisis, a new emergency has already arisen in the form of the coronavirus. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to revive all the previous unresolved crises at once, as well as raising a whole new set of challenges.

Will the Union manage to pull through this unprecedented moment in its history and build an efficient recovery plan? Or will the coronavirus spell the end of European cooperation? Have the crises shown the EU to be a fairweather project for the good times only, or can it still bounce back? What is fundamentally holding up the Union and what are the main risks of disunity? How can the full potential of European cooperation be unleashed?  

Ivan Krastev will discuss these and other issues. The Forum will be moderated by Corina Stratulat, Head of the EPC European Politics and Institutions Programme.