Dutch MEP Sophie in't Veld: 'Decline of the EU is possible but it's in our own hands'
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2020
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The coronavirus pandemic has presented Europe with a massive challenge – and so far the EU’s response has been found wanting in several key respects. As the death toll has mounted and the economic damage worsened, European solidarity and coordinated action has been questioned by member states like Italy and Spain. Stephen Sackur speaks to the influential Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld. Has Covid-19 exposed the weakness at the heart of the European project?
(Photo: Sophie in 't Veld, Dutch MEP)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:07.0 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:13.3 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is the |
| 0:19.3 | influential and long-serving Dutch MEP, Sophie |
| 0:22.2 | Intveldt, who's always been a champion of a liberal, open, integrated, democratic European Union. |
| 0:30.0 | Right now, with EU member states reeling from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, |
| 0:35.7 | the gap between that vision and current reality seems to be widening. |
| 0:41.4 | In terms of the death toll and the economic damage inflicted, Europe has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. |
| 0:49.5 | And the EU response has often seemed at odds with the core principles of solidarity, open borders and liberal democracy espoused in Brussels. |
| 1:00.0 | In particular, divisions have been exposed between south and north, with the hardest-hit countries, Italy and Spain, angered by the perceived lack of support coming from the prosperous northern nations, |
| 1:13.9 | in particular the Netherlands. Has coronavirus exposed a deeper political ill at the heart of the |
| 1:22.5 | European project? Well, Sophie Intfeldt joins me now from Brussels. Welcome to Hard Talk. Hello. |
| 1:29.3 | You are a Europhile. You make no apology for your enthusiasm for the European project. I wonder then |
| 1:37.5 | how disappointed you are with the European Union's response to this massive coronavirus challenge? |
| 1:47.0 | Well, look, frustration is part of life. |
| 1:49.9 | But if I look at the development of the European Union over the decades, |
| 1:54.6 | I note that every time it was a crisis that triggered further integration and development. And look, everybody |
| 2:03.1 | is struggling with this crisis. And yes, so is the European Union. But it took a while and we can |
| 2:08.8 | see that, first of all, the response to the health crisis to start with has really taken momentum |
| 2:15.7 | now in terms of, for example, you know, the joint procurement of protective |
| 2:20.3 | materials and stuff like that. Yes, there is a big argument over money, you know, and that's, of course, |
| 2:28.0 | always a very difficult one. There is an issue of solidarity, trust, and yeah, those are difficult challenges. |
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