When the European Union’s 27 leaders last managed to gather in person, they didn’t even talk about the coronavirus.
It was Feb. 21, the day Italy recorded its first fatality from the disease. They haggled unsuccessfully for 28 hours over the EU’s notoriously complicated budget. In a matter of weeks, everything changed. The pandemic tore into any last notion of unity and confronted the bloc with its next existential crisis.
Leaders and officials, unable to meet face to face, have become emotional as they’ve bickered over the phone, some blaming each other for slow responses and unwillingness to help as the outbreak spread across the continent. Old divisions have resurfaced, with the north seemingly reluctant to bail out the south. Even the usually more stoical Portuguese have bristled at Dutch comments about southern finances.