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Friday 8 May 2020, numerous distinguished speakers intervened during the special online
edition of The State of the Union, organised by the European University Institute (EUI). In this
unprecedented moment of global crisis, the event focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
health policy, the international economic outlook and global cooperation.
The European University Institute is happy to hereby provide selected quotes from the conference, as well
as video links to the full interventions of the various speakers and the three panel debates.
SESSION 1: OFFICIAL OPENING AND COVID-19: HEALTH POLICY & SOCIETY
The special online edition of The State of the Union was opened by EUI President Renaud Dehousse,
Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella and Governor of Tuscany Enrico Rossi.
In his high-level opening address European Council President Charles Michel called for a “De Gasperi
plan” to relaunch Europe, in the spirit of Alcide De Gasperi, Italy’s Prime Minister in the years following
World War II, and one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
Michel also added that Europe should focus more on well-being. “A caring society, where individual wellbeing
and collective well-being are fundamental to one another - let us make this Europe’s new horizon,
let this be what we direct our energies toward.” View speech…
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio: “We cannot forget that the health emergency has confronted the
EU with the worst crisis in its history. The answer we give will shape the future of the EU.” View speech…
The first panel debate, moderated by EUI Professor Ellen Immergut, delved into the public health aspects
of the COVID-19 crisis:
• ECDC Director Andrea Ammon said: “Constant dialogue with the population is crucial, so people
understand why they can’t go back to where they were before, why it is necessary for some
freedoms to be limited". Ammon also mentioned that “we learnt a lot in the first months and there
are still gaps - such as what works. Lessons from other viruses do not apply entirely - Covid-19 has
specific characteristics other viruses do not have.”
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• WHO’s Regional Emergency Director Dorit Nitzan said that this is not the time to point fingers.
Instead, we should “assess how we are all working in the global arena, how we share information
and trust each other." Nitzan said that international health regulations are a good tool for that.
• Professor Xuejie Yu from Wuhan University in China pointed to the need for collaboration,
“because the virus will be around for a while.”
View the panel debate: COVID-19: Health Policy and Society.
SESSION 2: ECONOMIC POLICIES FOR THE AFTERMATH
A high-level address by European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde opened session 2.
Talking about Europe and adversity, Lagarde said. “Whenever our concrete achievements were
threatened we did not backtrack…we decided to reinforce them.” As no country is responsible for causing
the crisis, “we must make sure there are no undue constraints on our policy responses," Lagarde added.
As far as the ECB is concerned, "we remain undeterred" to pursue the mandate set in the Treaty.
She went on to say this is "our Schuman moment" and call an EU common fiscal response “highly
desirable”, saying it needs to be “swift, sizeable and symmetric”. View the speech…
In the following high-level discussion, Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf talked to European
Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Paolo Gentiloni, who said that “the risk is that a common
crisis - such as the one we have - will have differentiated consequences on the economic field and this could
put the whole European building under pressure.” Gentiloni added that “we need a common fiscal policy,
not only a common monetary policy” and noted the significance of the fact that "the principle of a
common fiscal response is now accepted".
The ensuing debate, moderated by George Papaconstantinou, Professor at the EUI’s School of
Transnational Governance and former Greek Minister of Finance, looked at the economic impacts of
COVID-19 from various angles:
• OECD Chief Economist Laurence Boone said: “COVID19 may appear a symmetric shock, but it
isn't. It affected European countries differently and at different points in time." Boone added that
“we are entering a period in which we will be going from broad economic support to much better
targeted support.”
• Former Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the current crisis is very different from the
financial crisis. “In a period of some weeks the economies have been subject to such a huge shock.
It was much faster and deeper.” Dijsselbloem added with regard to a possible recovery fund: “If
we were to enter joint European debt the money should be spent on European programmes under
EU governance and under EU control. He expressed concern about whether that would actually
happen, because "how can we move forward if we don't trust each other?"
• London School of Economics Professor Ricardo Reis said that in the absence of health forecasts
“the range of uncertainty is tremendous, so it’s difficult to make economic forecasts; what we
really have are scenarios." Reis said he expected a rebound associated with the reopening of the
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economies: “there will be a lot of recovery right away which will then slow down and then go up
again." He also added that “the ECB response to the crisis has been appropriate in terms of
ambition and swiftness, and focused as it should be to maintain market stability.”
View the panel debate on economic policies for the aftermath
SESSION 3: COVID-19: GLOBAL COOPERATION
The final session on global cooperation was opened by a high-level conversation between IMF Managing
Director Kristalina Georgieva and FT Editor Roula Khalaf.
Georgieva pointed out that this crisis “is an opportunity to build a better world” by creating economies
that contribute more to society, increasing resilience against climate change and poverty and using
“massive fiscal stimuli to rebuild an eco-friendly economy.”
When asked by Khalaf about increasing tensions between China and the USA, Georgieva said that “it is
hugely important to resist what may be our natural tendency to retreat behind our borders.”
Watch the discussion…
The following panel debate moderated by Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Italian Institute for International
Affairs, zoomed in on many dimensions of #COVID19 and global cooperation:
• Mari E. Pangestu, Managing Director for Development and Partnerships at the World Bank said
COVID-19 is already leading to malnutrition in some places, saying “we need more cooperation
on food security”. She also said: “Never waste a good crisis. How do you use this crisis as an
opportunity to re-build better? We do it by protecting the future – such as thinking of climate
change.”
• Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University said that multilateralism was need to tackle this crisis, but
that “US politics are currently antithetical to multilateralism.” Sachs also said that “we need green
growth, digital growth and education-based growth – we can build a better world.”
• Alexander Stubb, former Finnish Prime Minister and new Director of the EUI’s School of
Transnational Governance, said we have three tendencies in this crisis: “We tend to overrationalise
the past, over-dramatise what’s going on, and underestimate what will happen in the
future.” On the global scene, Stubb sees an opportunity for Europe “to mediate and work as
intermediary between US and China (…) That would be a smart power play on the side of the
Europeans."
In the concluding high-level address Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte pointed at the need for
increased solidarity. “Our continent will prevail only if it wil be capable of staying united and implementing
a coordinated response based on...solidarity."