Covid-19: Leaders must show the EU is a partner, not a threat

The current leadership has its work cut out to make interdependence feel safe again

Emmanuel Macron visits a field hospital in Mulhouse. The French president is part of a generation of leaders who are much more interventionist, and not just in economic terms. Picture: Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Google “Europe” and “crisis”, and you will turn up 784 million results. So often do the two terms appear together that they might as well be a compound noun. With each new eurocrisis, commentators wring their hands over the question of whether the European project will survive.

On the surface, many eurocrises seem similar. European governments go through different phases of grief – from denial and anger to reconstruction and acceptance – and eventually blame ...