Over the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has cost the lives of millions of people, paralysed our societies and economies, infringed on our rights, and significantly increased inequalities. It is important to take stock and learn from these past years in order to make sure that in the future, Europe is better prepared to respond to such crises. With this objective, the S&Ds put forward the idea to set up a European Parliament special committee on Covid-19 to analyse all aspects of the pandemic and its implications. The work starts today.

Kathleen Van Brempt, S&D MEP and the chair of the new Covid-19 committee, said:

“Although this pandemic has not yet ended, Europe already finds itself in the next crisis. Over the past fifteen years, the EU has weathered the financial and other crises, the pandemic, and now we have the war in Europe. During all these crises, we’ve seen that the EU often lacked the necessary tools to act quickly. We’ve seen that the member states only agreed to a European response when it was in fact already too late, be it on the joint procurement of medical equipment, a common European migration policy, or the deepening of the energy union. This has led to the EU we know today: one that can react to crises but lacks the political mandate to prepare for them.

“We need to fundamentally change this dynamic. This is exactly what the new Covid-19 special committee will try to achieve - to build a Europe that is better prepared for future crises by drawing the right lessons from the pandemic; because Covid-19 has been more than a health crisis. It has also been a crisis of rising inequality, degenerative economies, democracy and fundamental rights, as well as international governance. The new special committee will therefore assess the pandemic in a holistic manner and look into the impact of the pandemic on all aspects of our society.

“Our mission will be to take stock of what we have learned over the past few years and be the driver of profound changes in Europe’s crisis management to ensure Europe’s future leaders are better equipped than we were at the start of the pandemic.”