Europe: who has the crisis hit hardest? – EDJ News

Covid-19 has affected public health and the economy very differently across Europe. These disparities could be detrimental to the EU’s future, further dispersing the already-divergent trajectories of member states. The Union’s very survival is in question if it cannot demonstrate (much) more solidarity than it did during the eurozone crisis. 

To assess these differences, we first looked at the coronavirus-related mortality rates reported to the WHO by the different countries. The way in which victims are counted may vary significantly from one country to another, but there is currently no better yardstick for the health impact of this crisis. For the economic consequences, we looked to the European Commission’s 2020 growth forecasts, published in early May. On the basis of the average values for the European Union – 277 deaths per million inhabitants as of 22 May, and a 7.4% recession this year – this gives us four groups of countries.

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