The EU is facing its biggest challenge in history, Angela Merkel has told German lawmakers.
AMN / WEB DESK
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that the coronavirus represented the biggest challenge that the EU had faced in its history. “The pandemic has revealed how fragile the European project still is,” she said.
In an address to the German Parliament on Thursday Chancellor said, “Europe has shown itself to be vulnerable. Cohesion and solidarity have never been as important as they are today. ” She outlined the issues she believed would dominate Germany’s forthcoming 6-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The impact of the pandemic has also shown Europe needed to take more responsibility globally. Authoritarians, she said, had been using the crisis to their advantage.
“They want to undermine the rule of law. They want to harm people’s dignity. They want to undermine people’s human rights and civil rights.”
In particular, the spreading of disinformation represented a global challenge for Europe. “This is something we need to stand up against, not just here,” said Merkel.
Merkel also said the EU’s relations with China would be a key issue. The chancellor said she favored “open-minded dialogue” in which Europe spoke with one voice, in particular on the issue of Hong Kong.
Other themes covered by the chancellor were digitalization and the shift to a climate-neutral economy.
Merkel spoke ahead of an EU summit Friday that was expected to focus on settling the bloc’s budget in the years to come, as well as the bloc’s reconstruction program for the economy emerging from the coronavirus pandemic.