The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the face of Europe. Member States’ divergent responses to this crisis reveal a lack of unity in the face of a humanitarian catastrophe. At best, this undermines the effectiveness of health protection within the European Union (EU). At worst, it risks breaking up the Union altogether. Divergent national responses to COVID-19 reflect different national preferences and political legitimacy, and thus cannot be completely avoided. In this article, we argue that these responses should be better coordinated. Without coordination, the price for diversity is high. Firstly, there are damaging spill-overs between Member States, which undermine key pillars of European integration such as the free movement of persons and of goods. Secondly, national policy-making is easily captured by local interest groups. Our proposal is that the EU indicates – not mandates – a European exit strategy from asymmetric containment policies of COVID-19. In particular, the EU should help Member States procure and validate tests for infection and immunity. The EU should also indicate ways in which testing could be used to create safe spaces to work, thereby restoring the free movement of persons and of goods. We see a great advantage in such EU guidance: it could improve mutual learning between Member States, which have faced different timings of the epidemic and learned different lessons. Although the local political economy has so far delayed learning and undermined cooperation, the EU can mitigate both effects and indicate the way for Europe to resurrect united from the ashes of COVID-19.

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从多样性到协调：欧洲应对 COVID-19 的方法

COVID-19 大流行正在改变欧洲的面貌。会员国对这场危机的不同反应表明在人道主义灾难面前缺乏团结。充其量，这会破坏欧盟 (EU) 内部健康保护的有效性。在最坏的情况下，它可能会完全破坏联盟。各国对 COVID-19 的不同反应反映了不同的国家偏好和政治合法性，因此无法完全避免。在本文中，我们认为应该更好地协调这些反应。没有协调，多样性的代价就很高。首先，成员国之间存在破坏性溢出效应，破坏了欧洲一体化的关键支柱，例如人员和货物的自由流动。其次，国家政策制定很容易被地方利益集团所掌握。我们的建议是，欧盟表明——而不是强制规定——从 COVID-19 的不对称遏制政策中退出欧洲战略。特别是，欧盟应帮助成员国采购和验证感染和免疫测试。欧盟还应说明可以通过哪些方式使用测试来创造安全的工作空间，从而恢复人员和货物的自由流动。我们看到欧盟这样的指导有一个很大的优势：它可以促进成员国之间的相互学习，这些成员国面临着不同的流行病时间，并吸取了不同的教训。尽管迄今为止当地的政治经济延迟了学习并破坏了合作，但欧盟可以减轻这两种影响，并为欧洲从 COVID-19 的灰烬中重新团结起来指明道路。