COVID-19 : Europe's response to the pandemic crisis.

Abstract

The aim of my HEC Liege Master Thesis is to provide the reader with an overview of the main measures adopted by the European Union in response to the virus COVID-19 crisis which began in the first months of 2020. The European Union institutions immediately reacted to the pandemic outbreak using existing instruments or creating new ones. The text will present the details of each measure, with a complete overview on the role and the processes related to it. In particular, I focused my studies and analysis on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), a controversial instrument for which there has been a lot of discussions during the months of lockdown and which still creates very conflicting reactions. The historic agreement that Europe reached during the European Council of July 2020, the birth of the "Recovery fund" and its characteristics will also be covered. The reactions, the requirements and the needs of some European Member States are defined in this text, together with a particular focus on Italy, the most affected country by the COVID-19 pandemic. Italy, in fact, at the moment of writing, is still trying to figure out the best strategies to adopt to face the emergency, suffering from an internal government tension that does not allow the country to quickly adopt a choice. Through this text, I have tried to express my own opinion on some of the country’s available options. My elaborates terminates with personal considerations on the future of Europe following this Pandemic crisis.