Covid-19, Pandemic Preparedness in the EU and the EP’s COVI Committee - In conversation with Kathleen Van Brempt

Given that the pandemic has not yet ended, the risk of finding Europe in a new crisis is real. In the past fifteen years, the EU has weathered a financial crisis, a refugee crisis, a pandemic, natural disasters, and now a war. Through these crises, the EU often lacked the necessary tools to act quickly. Member states agreed a common response when it was already too late. This has brought the EU to the situation that it is in today, reacting to crises, but lacking the political mandate and capacity in preparing for them. We will be joined by Kathleen van Brempt, a Member of the European Parliament since 2009. She is Chair of the Parliament’s Special Committee to investigate the EU's response to the pandemic and learns lessons for the future (COVI), as well as being a member of the Committee on International Trade (INTA).