Commission presents paper on emergency assistance Peter Liese: We need EU solidarity to save human lives / Without solidarity the EU can fall apart due to corona crisis

The corona crisis has the EU firmly in its grip. The European Commission has therefore today adopted a paper on emergency assistance. Among other things, this involves providing financial support to Member States for transporting intensive care patients to other Member States or coordinating free hospital bed capacity. The aim is to save as many lives as possible in the current crisis. So far, only Luxembourg and Germany have taken over patients from other Member States on a large scale. MEP Peter Liese, EPP spokesperson for health praised this concrete form of support by the Commission. "In my view, it is urgently necessary for all Member States to report their free bed capacities and to help those regions, such as Northern Italy, Madrid and Eastern France, where doctors and nurses are desperately fighting for people's lives but simply have no capacity left. The crisis hits Member States at different times and those who help today will certainly be grateful for help from others tomorrow," said the doctor and MEP. Liese himself had
repeatedly called for this kind of support, as this also affects the core of the European Union. "If we do not show solidarity, the corona virus can destroy the European Union. People who die because there is no longer enough capacity while many beds are still empty in neighbouring countries would be a sign of the EU's failure. I am therefore very grateful to all the doctors and nurses who are already helping to treat patients from the particularly affected regions. However, this can be further improved. When our EPP group first raised the idea of this kind of solidarity three weeks ago, many thought that it could not work at all. However, in Germany and in Luxembourg we are demonstrating that this form of solidarity, in which human lives are at stake, works. Liese also referred in this question to earlier assistance to non-EU states: "We have flown patients from West Africa with Ebola to treat them here. Why the hell is it not possible for patients from Italy and Spain to be treated in Ireland, in Scandinavian countries or in Eastern Europe? I am very grateful to Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides for offering concrete help through the document presented today.  At the same time, the document is also a moral appeal to all Member States to do what is possible to do," the doctor and MEP concluded.