The coronavirus pandemic seems to be spiraling out of control across most of Europe. Christmas markets that are traditionally bustling this time of year are closed. New lockdowns and border controls have been implemented across the continent. A new mutated and more transmittable strain of COVID-19 has been discovered in the UK. This has led to border restrictions leaving thousands of truck drivers stranded over the holiday period. There are too many tales of economic hardship across Europe to mention here. Many are wondering whether there will be an end to the misery. The recent spike in cases in the US has also become commonplace in Europe. There have been more than 16 million cases reported across the continent this year, with numbers rising every day. Not only is the impact of the pandemic putting a huge economic strain on Europe, but it has also placed a political strain on the EU. However, while things seem bad now, one should not forget that the situation in Europe regarding the pandemic has never been great. During the earlier days of the pandemic, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was accused of dithering and being in denial about the scale of the crisis. Croatia, which was holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU at the time, saw its health minister fired over a domestic political scandal involving dubious real estate deals. This left the Croatian government distracted and delayed in leading and coordinating an EU response in the early days. After much debate, the EU failed to invoke a mechanism called the Solidarity Clause, which would have probably helped to focus more resources and tools inside the bloc to deal with COVID-19. Even the EU’s top scientist Mauro Ferrari resigned in April over the way the organization was mishandling the crisis. To put it bluntly, the EU failed to deliver for its member states early on, and it is hardly doing any better now. After much debate, the EU failed to invoke a mechanism called the Solidarity Clause, which would have probably helped to focus more resources and tools inside the bloc to deal with COVID-19 Luke Coffey Just look at the debate surrounding the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine across the EU. While the US and the UK have started mass vaccination programs, the EU has not. The main goal of policymakers across Europe should be to provide a vaccine to as many people as possible, as safely as possible and as quickly as possible. However, Von der Leyen recently stated that she hoped member states could start the vaccinations on the same day as “a sign of unity.” This means that most of Europe will not start vaccinating against COVID-19 in any meaningful way until Dec. 27 at the earliest. Meanwhile, the US is still on track to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the month. At this point, many in Europe care less about unity than they do about getting their health, jobs and way of life back. If a vaccine is safe and available, your average European does not want to wait. Frankly, the idea of every EU member state waiting to start vaccinating on the same day for the sake of political unity is crazy. Also, not only have European regulators been slow at approving vaccines that have already been proven safe in the US and the UK, it now appears that the EU has ordered too few vaccines too late. Brussels did not place sizeable orders for vaccines until mid-November. Reportedly, the EU even turned down an offer on cost grounds back in July to purchase 500 million Pfizer doses. In typical fashion, the EU has preferred to order from European companies despite American companies showing earlier and better trial results. This is the sort of economic protectionism the EU is known for. In this case, protectionism could literally kill. After realizing the foolishness of this approach, the EU ended up procuring 100 million doses from Pfizer and another 80 million from Moderna. However, it is estimated that these will not arrive until the second half of 2021. In Germany, there was a particular outcry against the vaccination plans. Health Minister Jens Spahn announced that there will initially only be 400,000 vaccine doses for Germany, with millions more not arriving until the new year. By contrast the UK, which left the EU earlier this year, has already administered more than 500,000 doses. One German leading newspaper, Bild, pointed out that the first German citizen to be vaccinated against the virus was actually in the UK. Of course, any initial governmental response to the pandemic has to come from local and national authorities. However, when local and national medical provisions and supply chains become overwhelmed, countries in Europe tend to look to the EU for help. The pandemic has shown the limits of how the EU can help its member states. Since February, more than 480,000 people across Europe have died from the virus. The idea that certain EU member states that have access to the vaccine would hold off from administering it to its population for the sake of unity is unbelievable. It remains to be seen what the long-term impact of the pandemic will have on the push for more political and economic integration in the EU. Even before the pandemic, there was a large increase in Euroscepticism across the continent. If anything, the EU’s poor response to the pandemic will only increase these sentiments. Without a doubt, there will be a serious debate about the future of the EU once things return to a new normal in Europe. In the meantime, however, the EU needs to worry less about political unity and more about defeating this virus. • Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @LukeDCoffey. Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view