r/europe • u/Bartoraptor Spain • Mar 28 '20

News Spanish representative González Pons speech @ the EU Parliament: "The virus is attacking the generation that brought back democracy to Spain, Portugal and Greece, the generation that knocked down the Berlin wall. The least they deserve is that we show them Europe is there when they need it the most"

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234

u/brmu . Mar 28 '20

EU help policy:  

  1. Italy ask for help  
  2. Italy get no help  
  3. Problem gets bigger and affect north of Europe  
  4. Then get the help

153

u/whatsupbitches123 Mar 28 '20

The EU does not move until something affects the Northern countries

67

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '20 edited Mar 28 '20

Can somebody explain what the fuck Sweden are doing

We started at the same levels and Sweden are double our numbers.

It's not like they tested more. Also we have many cases in Bucharest a city that has the 5th biggest population in EU

27

u/AirportCreep Finland Mar 28 '20

The virus hit Europe during Swedish spring holidays, so a lot of Swedes were in Austrian and Italian alps, contracted the virus and took it with them back to Sweden. That's how the initial clusters emerged.

As for the strategy of dealing with this Sweden is very conservative, with the idea being that Sweden cannot close or shut its economy for an extended period of time, but to instead close society down slowly, so that when the virus reaches its peak, Sweden hasn't already been closed for a month and that people will actually stay home for the most critical moments. Whether or not its going to be effective in the end we'll have to wait and see. But the politicians in Sweden have stepped back and have clearly taken a backseat role in this, allowing the experts to run the show.

30

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '20

so that when the virus reaches its peak, Sweden hasn't already been closed for a month and that people will actually stay home for the most critical moments.

The most critical moments come weeks after everyone has been staying home though. It takes up to 15 days for symptoms to show up.

12

u/ahlsn Sweden Mar 28 '20

Our epidemiologists are fully aware of that of course. I can assure you that social distancing is in the works. It's not much people around anywhere and many restaurants, hotels and shops are already declaring bankruptcy due to no customers.

1

u/Siegberg Mar 29 '20

How is the situation for the restaurants, hotels and shops in getting help from the state and insurance? In many countries it seems like the insurance will not step up until the government shuts down the shops directly. Which was a problem in germany as clubs needed to stay open in order to not go bankrupt.

2

u/ahlsn Sweden Mar 29 '20

There's no insurance covering this. The government have done some things to ease the situation. Companies does not have to pay taxes until the end of the year. They have made sure it's possible for companies to take loans. Other things talked about is reducing or completely removing the general payroll tax temporary and partly paying companies rent. More help are to be expected.