EU too dependent on imports amid medicines shortage
Jerome Hughes
Press TV, Brussels
EU health ministers hold a video-conference to discuss declining stocks of medication and the bloc's reliance on imports of vital drugs. The European Commission says COVID-19 has exposed shortcomings when it comes to cooperation within the bloc.
The coronavirus health emergency highlights that the EU is vulnerable due to its dependence on China and India for life-saving pharmaceuticals. The European Commission says some member states have been hoarding medicines. EU health ministers have held a videoconference to discuss ways to pool resources, step up production within the bloc, and find a cure.
Also on Tuesday, EU defence ministers held an online meeting to examine how the military can better assist civilian agencies in the fight against COVID-19. Unlike Donald Trump, the person who chaired that meeting claims he has no idea precisely where the virus came from.
There is no doubt, however, regarding the devastating economic impact. On an almost daily basis fresh data is released to underpin this fact.
New research just released by the EU agency, Eurofound, reveals that 28 percent of workers in the 27-nation bloc have temporarily or permanently lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19 and half of all workers in the EU report that their hours have been reduced.
On Monday when we filmed shops reopening from lockdown in Belgium there were already signs that some outlets were giving up.
In other developments the UK, which is still subject to EU rules until the end of this year, is being accused by some of unfair practice. It has announced that people travelling into Britain from Ireland and France will be exempt from a new 14-day quarantine law.
The EU's external borders remain closed. The European Commission has extended its ban on non-essential travel into the bloc until the 15th of June.
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