The EU has failed in face of coronavirus, Czech President Miloš Zeman tells Blesk

Lany, Central Bohemia, April 5 (CTK) – The EU has failed in face of the new coronavirus outbreak and the epidemic will certainly weaken it, Czech President Miloš Zeman told Blesk tabloid today.

Zeman pointed out that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke against states closing their borders.

“The European Union absolutely failed and especially the European Commission,” he said.

When von der Leyen recommended to open the borders, she supports the increase of the epidemic, he added.

Zeman said he did not want to further elaborate this.

He said he is glad that the Czech government closed the borders in March. “If the borders were reopened, it would cause an outburst of the epidemic that would be incomparably bigger than if the borders remain closed,” he said.

Von der Leyen told the DPA press agency in late March that the closure of borders by individual EU member states has not stemmed the coronavirus spread but, on the contrary, it harmed many companies and interrupted suppliers’ chains in Europe. Only the internal market has brought the current welfare and strength to the EU, von der Leyen said.

Zeman said national states mostly proved capable to cope with crisis. “Not all of them, but our state did,” he said.

The epidemic showed that the EU is incapable of coordinated action, he pointed out.

He noted that the EU does not have any pandemic plan and so it will have to be created.

Zeman said both the rules of behaviour of the EU and the politicians at its head should change. “Let us try to have people like the founding fathers at the head of the EU and not the grey white-collar nobodies,” he said.