THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESS IN TIMES OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC: FRAGMENTATION VS. SOLIDARITY

Authors

  • ANTÓNIO PORTUGAL DUARTE https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5388-0051
  • FÁTIMA TERESA CASTELO DA ASSUNÇÃO SOL MURTA https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7652-7405
  • LICÍNIA SIMÃO

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26619/1647-7251.17.1.8

Keywords:

Enlargement, macroeconomic impacts, European integration, COVID-19 pandemic, solidarity

Abstract

The article analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the European integration process, particularly focusing on its economic component. The pandemic effects were particularly severe in the Tourism and Hospitality and Aviation sectors, most affected by measures to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus, such as confinement and border closures. Some of the main consequences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on European countries are explained according to a critical assessment of the success of some public intervention measures implemented by policy makers to address it. The research carried out highlighted important lessons: i) solidarity between the different EU Member States was fundamental to the success of the vaccination process; ii) better health increased labor supply and productivity, contributing decisively to economic growth in the EU; iii) neither the tourism nor aviation sectors were prepared to deal with major health-related crises, and iv) economic recovery will take several years.

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Author Biographies

ANTÓNIO PORTUGAL DUARTE, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5388-0051

He is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra (Portugal) and a researcher affiliated with the Centre for Business and Economics Research (CeBER) at the same institution. He was an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Economics in Bratislava and the Belgrade Banking Academy. He is the author of the book “O Sistema Monetário Internacional: Uma Perspectiva Histórico-Económica” and author or co-author of several papers and book chapters. His main areas of research are European integration and international macroeconomics.

FÁTIMA TERESA CASTELO DA ASSUNÇÃO SOL MURTA, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7652-7405

She is a Professor at the University of Coimbra (Portugal), Faculty of Economics. She is a Research Fellow for CeBER – Centre for Business and Economics Research with PhD in Economics). Her research interests include banking economics and financial markets. She has published in journals such as Small Business Economics, Journal of Economic Studies, Eurasian Economic Review, Studies in Economics and Finance, Scientific Annals of Economics or Journal of Financial Crime.

LICÍNIA SIMÃO

PhD. She is Vice-Dean and Associate Professor with Habilitation at the School of Economics, University of Coimbra (Portugal), teaching International Relations. She a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, where she is co-coordinator of the research group on “(Semi)peripheral Capitalism: Crises and Alternatives”. From 2018 to 2023, she served as an advisor to two Portuguese Ministers of Defence, and was Coordinator of the Atlantic Centre, from 2021 to 2023. Prof. Simão has held visiting research fellowships at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, and at the Centre for European Studies in Ottawa, and is currently a member of the Advisory Board at the Georgian Institute of Politics, in Tbilisi, and of the Ocean Regions Program, at the University of Pretoria Her research interests include foreign policy analysis and security studies, focusing on European foreign, security and defence policies, conflict management in the countries of the former-Soviet Union, as well as Atlantic security and Ocean Politics.

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Published

2026-05-04

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026)

Section

ARTICLES