“This was catastrophic for the European Union’s reputation,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
At the beginning of the crisis, as nations erected borders and accumulated protective equipment, masks and gowns, there was a great desire for European cooperation, he said, “not because people liked the EU or its institutions, but because they were so absent. “
But the issue now, he said, is buyer’s remorse. “The EU entered an area without experience and competence and stood out,” he said. “In the minds of many who look to the UK, the US and Israel, they think we are doing poorly because of European cooperation, and it will have a corrosive impact in other areas.”
Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies at the University of Oxford, said the bloc’s “fundamental legitimacy” came less from its democratic institutions, which are weak, than from its performance, which is how it will be judged. Its real legitimacy, he said, “is what it offers to Europeans”.
But the bloc’s other major initiative, an innovative pandemic recovery fund, has yet to be implemented and is overshadowed by American stimulus packages.
While national leaders generally take credit for each success and blame the Commission for each failure, the pandemic showed the vulnerabilities of a bureaucracy with weak and divided leadership. An effort by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a doctor, to increase her power and profile by obtaining vaccine purchases from member states was disastrous.