Comment: Yep, and YOU will have been responsible for breaking it!


macron
© REUTERS / POOL
Speaking to the leaders of the 26 European Union states, French President Emmanuel Macron, during a Thursday video-conference on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, warned that the bloc's fundamental projects, including the no-border zone, could be imperiled if the nations fail to show solidarity during the crisis, according to Reuters.

"What's at stake is the survival of the European project," Macron told the leaders in the conference call, according to Reuters, citing a French diplomat. "The risk we are facing is the death of Schengen".


Comment: It's already dead. The borders are closed, and they'll only reopen on a bilateral basis. They're still legally wide open to capital of course, but even those pathways have seized up because this utter fiasco has broken supply chains and inter-bank lending.


Commenting on a phone call Macron had with US President Donald Trump, the French president noted that France and the US, along with other countries, were preparing "a new strong initiative" in response to the ongoing pandemic, without specifying details.


The EU appears to be finding it difficult to develop a common approach to counteract the rapidly spreading threat posed by the deadly pandemic, prompting each country to handle the crisis in a different way. Many states have implemented restrictions and closed borders with other EU nations as a preventive measure to slow the spread of the virus.

"The European Union today is actually unable to cope with its main taskto ensure the functioning of a single market. The main duty of the EU is to ensure united economic space, free movement of labor, goods, services and capital. We have obvious problems today with at least three of these components," Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid said on Tuesday.


Comment: All of them, in fact, as explained above.


On Wednesday, a draft statement of the European Council seen by Euractiv revealed that EU heads of state have called for the establishment of a Europe-wide crisis management centre in the light of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic.


On Thursday, 26 EU national leaders held a six-hour video conference, during which they discussed the outbreak's repercussions on the bloc's economy as well as ordering a draft for a recovery plan.