Cohesion of the European Union: Challenges Posed by the 2020 Pandemic Crisis

Pandemijska kriza uzrokovala je mnoge izazove na globalnoj razini. Europska unija pokušala je pravovremeno i optimalno odgovoriti na neke od izazova koji su zahvatili njezino područje, a autorica je uočila sljedeće: ekonomski pad; kriza zdravstvenog sektora; nepostojanje cjepiva; smanjenje mobilnosti građana unutar i izvan državnih granica; širenje dezinformacija te pitanje očuvanja europskih vrijednosti i propadanja demokracije. Uz to što će prikazati reakciju EU na pojedine izazove u 2020. godini, analizirat će i strategije triju država članica koje su primijenile različite pristupe borbi protiv virusa – strategiju Njemačke, Švedske i Mađarske. Autorica će doći do zaključka da je EU uspješno odgovorila na jedan dio navedenih izazova, dok je na drugi dio ipak mogla čvršće reagirati. U borbi s izazovima nije pomogla niti različitost strategija država članica, a neke od njih pronašle su i nove saveznike izvan EU.The pandemic crisis has caused many challenges on a global level. The European Union tried to respond in a timely and optimal manner to some of the challenges that affected its area, and the author detected the following: economic decline; health sector crisis; lack of vaccine; reducing the mobility of citizens inside and outside national borders; spreading misinformation and the issue of preserving European values and the decline of democracy. In addition to showing the EU's response to certain challenges in 2020, the strategies of the three member states that have applied different approaches to fighting the virus - strategies of Germany, Sweden and Hungary - will be analyzed. The author will come to the conclusion that the EU has successfully responded to one part of these challenges, while it could have reacted more strongly to the other part. The various strategies of the member states did not help in the fight against the challenges, and some of them even found new allies outside the EU