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Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform thinktank, believes an extension is inevitable but Johnson has “no incentive” to seek one until June, the deadline for a one-off UK request.
 
“A free-trade agreement could still be agreed but it would be hard to implement. Even if we were coming to the end of this pandemic by then, businesses will be not be prepared,” said Lowe, who described himself as optimistic that a free-trade deal could be done by the end of the year, albeit a poor one.
 

Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in Berlin, put it like this: The “Anglo-Saxon idolising of Merkel is a bit pathetic, but understandable,” Odendahl’s scathing comment on Twitter went: “The political leadership of both the US and the UK is a parody, and so you are naturally drawn to the polar opposite – which is Merkel.”

The corona crisis put the EU (European Union) vulnerable back into the test, after weakened by Brexit (the British withdrawal from the European Union). In particular, the imbalance in the EU is deepening as southern Europe, which has suffered economic crises such as Italy and Spain, has been hit harder by Corona. Southern Europe has already paralyzed the real economy from massive national debt. If any country in southern Europe collapses, it means a retreat in European integration.

John Springford at the Centre for European Reform thinks tracing technologies are a prerequisite for post-lockdown life but warns that without mass testing in member states, they may still prove ineffective: “To avoid further mass outbreaks, member states must first continue to build testing capacity and develop contact tracing systems. Only then can they slowly ease restrictions, in order to determine the effects of different interventions on infection rates. The EU can help to ensure that all member states have the tests and technology to be able to do so, exchange information between them about what works and what does not, and ensure that citizens’ privacy is respected.”

“It is clear that they are not on the same page yet when it comes to the recovery fund,” said Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform. “The divide is still there.” Or, as one German official put it, “We agreed to disagree”.

Ian Bond, director de Política Exterior en el Centre for European Reform, cree que es un ejemplo perfecto de cómo las “políticas impulsivas” nacionales tienen consecuencias negativas para todos: “La gente que intentaba volver a sus respectivos países quedó atrapada, se interrumpieron las cadenas de suministro, incluso de bienes esenciales, y nos encontramos con filas interminables de camiones sin que todo eso impidiera la propagación de la enfermedad”.