The search for solutions to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic can draw lessons from past experiences.
The COVID-19 epidemic has taken the world by surprise. In fact, other epidemics have developed in recent years; the novelty was the rapid spread and the fact that the epidemic developed in the more industrialised countries, which were considered more immune than the less developed countries.
The surprise meant that emergency, prompt activation measures were preferred, postponing the adoption of long-term measures. Ultimately, each state defended its territory, closing and postponing the adoption of adequate international cooperation measures to the future.
This short-sighted strategy is showing its limits. Similar epidemics are bound to repeat themselves; globalisation will contribute to their planetary spread; the economic and social impact requires rethinking the development model, the welfare state, the international cooperation.
There are analogies with the reaction to the crisis of the international monetary system of 1968. Even then the defence of national interests was affirmed as the first reaction. The birth of the euro to rebalance the world monetary order took decades. The rules of the European Central Bank were established after a long and difficult debate.
The health crisis today needs to be addressed more quickly with effective solutions, capable of addressing the nature of the problem, not only of protecting the interests affected. Such a project has multiple dimensions. It must have an adequate social and economic strategy:
- the European Economic Union is needed, with a new public - private relationship;
- a social strategy that redesigns welfare by strengthening solidarity and rebalancing the welfare itself with the evolution of European society;
- these are crucial issues that the constituent conference on the future of Europe, which European Parliament has proposed to launch on 9 May, is called to address.