A virtual EU summit was held yesterday, whose goal was to unite heads of state and government to effectively contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. European leaders discussed economic recovery after the coronavirus crisis. In this regard, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, expressed hope for the speedy implementation of the stimulus package that was adopted in July this year. The European Commission discussed issues of economic recovery, highlighting an important factor – the unification of the positions of all EU countries.
Mr. Michel said that gathering all EU states and governments into one team in order to recover the economies of the member states and maintain their social standards is the only way to deal with this crisis. At the same time, he noted that the current situation with the spread of COVID-19 has grown from alarming to threatening in a few weeks. To avoid tragedy, the EU member states agreed on a common policy to fight the virus, which involves the implementation of joint actions.
The first thing that is planned to be implemented is the exchange of complete and accurate data using the platform of the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC). This approach is intended to improve the management of the actions of the EU members, as well as to facilitate the timely compensation of missing materials and equipment.
The heads of countries also noted the need to exchange experience and analysis results. It was decided to create a special platform for communication, exchange of views and consultations of high-level specialists, as well as the governments of the EU member states.
However, mass testing is still a crucial factor in preventing the spread of the virus. An important role is assigned to rapid tests for antigens. It will be mandatory for every resident of the EU countries to be tested in the near future.
Moreover, it is planned to do contract tracing of people using a special portal for communication of mobile applications and their interoperability. It is clear that the coverage of these applications is clearly insufficient today. Therefore, the heads of the EU are going to urge their citizens to actively download these applications to their mobile phones. At the same time, passenger localization tracking forms will also eventually be compatible with these applications. Perhaps, without such applications, it will be unlikely to use all the benefits of civilization that are still available in the near future. Time will tell how true this assumption is. However, it is worth recognizing that the population will still have to get used to controlling their lives.
Lastly, widespread vaccination is considered to be the main factor to stop COVID-19 from spreading. This will have three priorities. The first of them means the early approval of vaccines, but with the obligatory consideration of safety guarantees. In fact, the European Medicines Agency is already testing the proposed vaccines for safety and effectiveness. The second priority is the equitable distribution of vaccines. This means that all EU countries will receive the right amount of vaccines for their population. The developed vaccines will be delivered to countries simultaneously and under the same conditions. At the same time, the European Commission intends to check all vaccination plans prepared by the EU member states.
Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to predict what will happen to the pandemic in the future, how the virus will behave and what damage will be done to the economies of countries and the population of the world. And even though we are talking only about the countries of the European Union, it should be admitted that this kind of order will eventually cover all the countries of Europe, and possibly the whole world. Therefore, based on the results of the summit held yesterday, it can be concluded that we should expect that the population will have to get used to a new reality, a new world order in the near future.
