A “Coronavirus Presidency”: The Consequences of the Health Crisis for the German Presidency of the Council of the EU Allemagne d'aujourd'hui, No. 236, April-June 2021
On July 1, 2020, Germany assumed the six-month EU Council Presidency, at a time of global pandemic crisis. This presidency has thus quickly become a “corona presidency” in its objectives and functioning, itself a victim of the pandemic.
Beyond the management of the crisis itself, the challenges of this presidency were strong: it was a question of drawing lessons from the pandemic and using them to revitalize a European Union in permanent crisis. During this presidency, progress was made in finding solutions, particularly in the areas of health and the economy, while the health crisis and its consequences remained a major problem. But the main obstacle to strengthening European health sovereignty is the lack of delegation of competences in the health field at the European level, despite some developments.
Paul Maurice is a Research Fellow at the Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa) at the French Institute of International Relations - Ifri.
- This publication is available in French: Allemagne d'aujourd'hui, n° 236, avril-juin 2021 (pp. 21-31).