Even long before this covid-supply-inflation-energy crisis, the economic lag of Europe was visibly apparent. With the Russia-Ukraine war, gas games, and the expected winter freeze, this fact has been cemented and is indisputable like scientific knowledge. Even the 'fact-checkers' of our warm community have verified it. However, instead of the EU addressing this harsh reality, morally binding clichés like solidarity are being pulled out of the hat. Clearly, the famous motto 'liberté, égalité, fraternité' (which, admittedly, has been trampled on for some time) lacked that modern final touch – solidarité. Et voilà, Europe has completely melted into this 'voluntary' social cohesion. It has replaced governance, reason, thinking, planning, tactics, strategy, care, everything that any authority, especially a supranational one, must be capable of doing.
However, when concrete actions are absent, and this is not a recent issue nor one that arose from the pandemic, as the EU has no idea how to connect the traditionally developed north and the traditionally poor south (between which the gap yawns even wider in crises), it is simplest to pull out slogans and point fingers at anyone who does not believe in them.
In this imposed and created covid crisis, we lost income, but we found solidarity. There is not a word about the fact that no one has shown solidarity with those who lost their jobs, businesses, homes, mental and physical health due to the senseless reaction to the virus, because, God forbid, the measures of comparison are not equal. And European solidarity is quite selective. For instance, Ms. Von der Leyen calls for solidarity due to the gas crisis in Europe, because, lo and behold, not all countries rushed to save for others.
