This is Europe's now or never moment

More European collaboration, less nationalism and more efficiency in decision-making are the lessons to be learned from the current pandemic, says the EPP Group in the European Parliament.

"This is Europe’s now or never moment. This is the time to show that Europeanism is also effective, that it is also patriotic, that it is also human. This is the time to demonstrate that borders will never be a solution. If the European Union does not serve to face a pandemic that can devastate the continent, what is it for?", said Esteban González Pons, EPP Group Vice-Chairman, in today's debate in the European Parliament ahead of the vote on measures proposed to combat the Coronavirus pandemic in Europe.

The European Union should not give the impression that the matter is being treated as business as usual. "Some governments come to Brussels to see how much money they can take and others to see how much money they can prevent others from taking, but no-one is thinking of Europeans as a whole. Coming to Brussels to exclusively defend national interests is also nationalism, although our Prime Ministers don’t know it", said González Pons.

"The truth is we could have acted before. We could have acted faster. We could have simply acted together. We were wrong not to give importance to a virus that came from China and we can be wrong again if we settle in the certainty that this nightmare will end when summer arrives", said González Pons.

"If fear and death affect us all, if they do not distinguish countries, it makes no sense for national governments to distinguish the healthy, the sick and the dead by their nationality", he concluded.