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FUrsula von der Leyen disappeared for a few days. When the heads of state and government met in Brussels in the middle of the month, she really wanted to present to them the state of the Brexit negotiations. But immediately before that, the president of the Commission learned that an employee in her office had tested positive. He quickly rushed to isolate himself. It wasn’t until a few days later that it turned out that this time he had not retired to the 13th floor of the Berlaymont building, where he lives and works. Instead, she had her driver take her directly to her family near Hannover. His spokesperson was joking until he admitted that. Nobody likes to show weakness in the Corona crisis.
Thomas gutschker
Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.
Von der Leyen was there again on Wednesday, giving one of his rare press conferences. It was about how the European Union can cope with the second wave. This Thursday, the heads of state and government will discuss it, this time in a videoconference. It seems that the mid-month meeting may have been the last in a long time that the bosses saw each other in person. As the Belgian Health Minister recently said, Brussels has become one of the “most dangerous places” in Europe. In the past two weeks, more than 2,000 of 100,000 residents tested positive, a sad peak in Europe. The European institutions must continue to restrict their work.
So what could be the message of the President of the Commission? “We are immersed in the second wave,” von der Leyen said with a serious expression. The situation is very serious. The virus has spread widely in member states and more and more people are infected. Last week alone, 1.1 million cases were reported in all Member States. “We expect these numbers to continue to rise in the next two to three weeks, and rapidly.” Currently, around a thousand Europeans die every day with or from Covid-19. Intensive care units are still used to just a third of the European average, compared to the highs during the first spring wave. But that too should change quickly.
In Belgium, for example, 800 out of 2,000 intensive care beds were occupied on Wednesday. The government fears that the seats will only last until November 10. Then you have to practice the dreaded triage, the doctors decide who gets the ventilators. Unless neighboring states intervene. Several German hospitals in the Eifel and the Aachen region have already agreed to do so. It could be a job the Commission is helping with. But von der Leyen urged that states first create transparency in their capabilities so that even bottlenecks can be recognized.
It is still difficult with the data. As the Commission noted in a communication, so far only five Member States use a data exchange platform that it has created. The EU infection control authority is also affected. Now it publishes a map that shows the infection process according to a new traffic light system that takes into account not only the incidence value but also the proportion of positive tests. Of course, it took states several weeks to make this small amount of data available. Belgium has not yet succeeded. And the positive rate cannot be determined locally either, because states do not collect these values.
