The Challenge of the European Union for COVID-19 in Fighting International Crises

Abstract

International crises are events that develop suddenly in different areas around the world. These crises have different effects on countries. The European Union (EU), a supranational organization, was established in 1951 with the Paris Agreement and remains a gradually evolving structure to this day. In this process, the EU has a growing structure with both enlargement and deepening movements. As it advances its deepening, it also completes its institutional development within its own structure. In the almost 71 years of its existence, the EU has also been confronted with various global crises, which it has survived during this long period. These crises can sometimes be in security, sometimes in the area of economics, and sometimes in the form of a global epidemic such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic was first identified in China in December 2019 and quickly spread around the world. This pandemic, which is transmitted through human contact and respiration, quickly spread around the world and became a deadly virus. This situation caused panic in the world and forced countries to take various measures and methods to protect themselves from epidemics. Countries that made a serious test were faced with a deadly epidemic after a long time. At this point, the attitude of the EU, which has 27 member countries, is the main subject of this study. The study mainly aims to present the attitude of the EU toward different types of crises by briefly mentioning the global crises that the EU faced. Then, the strategies created by the EU, which faced a global epidemic for the first time, are examined.

Citation

Saygın, D. (2023), "The Challenge of the European Union for COVID-19 in Fighting International Crises", Günar, A. and Saygın, D. (Ed.) The European Union in the Twenty-First Century, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 31-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-537-320231003