By Alberto Lorente Saiz, President of the Valencian Region branch of the Spanish Association of Geographers (Colegio de Geógrafos de España) and European projects lead at Crea360
Over the past year, the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that, 70 years on, Robert Schuman’s words are still relevant: that Europe will be built “through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity”.
We may not be living through a historic moment like 9 May 1950, but in the face of a global crisis that has challenged every EU country, a united response based on solidarity is the only one that can truly help secure the future of an organised, living Europe that guarantees peace.
We will all remember 2020 as the year of the pandemic that brought the world to a standstill. But we will also remember 2021 as the year the European Union acted decisively on economic recovery through, among other things, the Recovery and Resilience Facility, a package of funding that, together with the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework, represents an economic injection never seen before. We will also remember it as the year most of the population was vaccinated in a coordinated and efficient way, in an unprecedented mass vaccination campaign. And perhaps we will remember it as the moment the European Health Union was created, an ambition set out by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in October 2020.
This European anniversary has also shown through many actions that the European Union stands together and genuinely delivers the concrete achievements based on solidarity between neighbours. Examples include rescEU, which sent dozens of ventilators to the Czech Republic from the medical stockpile set up by Romania; Germany, Poland and Romania sending medical teams to hospitals in southern Italy; and Austria, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg opening their intensive care units to French, Italian and Dutch patients. This solidarity has not been limited to Member States but has reached beyond Europe’s borders.
Clearly, the European Union has many issues to reflect on, debate and improve, as shown by the fact that some members still question whether to remain in this great union. Yet on this 9 May 2021 we can celebrate that there is clearly a Union between neighbouring countries, bound by more than a legal and political framework. We can celebrate that Europe has overcome the ideological borders that divided it decades ago and has a solid foundation of community and cooperation on which to build its future.