Matteo Salvini

The prevailing wisdom holds that the Covid-19 pandemic could "break the EU", lead to the renationalisation of competencies, and create an inward looking continent devoid of solidarity. Yet this temporary trauma belies the tremendous opportunity emerging to create a more integrated and cohesive European Union. Over 70 years ago, the…

Editor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For our coronavirus tracker and more coverage, see our hubIT IS “impossible to be more optimistic than Costa,”…

In an unprecedented move, the Italian government has declared its seaports “unsafe” due to the coronavirus pandemic, and will not authorise the landing of migrant rescue boats until the end of the emergency.In a decree issued late on Tuesday, the government wrote that “for the entire duration of the health…

It’s been a decade of dispiriting division for the European project. Financial and migration crises of 2008 and 2015, the hammer-blow of Brexit, the looming shadow of autocracy in the East. Each has strained the fabric of integration—yet all have failed to rip the Union asunder. But coronavirus is a…

The head of the European Commission is advocating for measures to drive Europe out of the coronavirus crisis stronger than it was before, but the cracks inside the bloc’s relations may cast a shadow on her bright projects. Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that member states had begun…

By Crispian Balmer ROME (Reuters) - The head of the European Commission apologised to Italy on Thursday for a lack of solidarity from Europe in tackling its coronavirus crisis, but promised greater help in dealing with the economic fallout. There has been widespread dismay in Italy over Europe's response to…

By: | Published: April 2, 2020 8:10:20 pm In this March 29, 2020, file photo volunteers in protective suits spray disinfectant on storefronts to help curb the spread of the coronavirus in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)Written by Rodion Ebbighausen A quick look at China, where the novel coronavirus…

The EU's new 'Irini' naval operation, off the Libyan coast, will not disclose how member states decide where to send any migrants rescued at sea. An EU foreign affairs spokesperson said special confidential arrangements have instead been made on where to disembark people, should Irini have to rescue them at…

View photos(Bloomberg) -- For a guide to the dangers to a European democracy enduring a uniquely debilitating economic shock, Greece is an easy example at the continent’s doorstep.A contraction of at least 10% may be unprecedented in postwar times for most industrialized nations, but that’s what UniCredit predicts for the…

Nightmare Haunting Euro Founders May Be a Reality With Italy(Bloomberg) -- Two decades since the euro began, one of the principal worries of its founders is materializing as the coronavirus rages through the region’s third-largest economy.The longstanding suspicion that Italy’s profligate borrowing could ultimately become the whole of Europe’s problem…