Editorial for the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Shortcomings and Strengths of the EU Legal System in Selected Policy Domains

Abstract

This special issue on the Covid-19 Pandemic in European Union: shortcomings and strengths of the EU legal system in selected policy domains begins with two contributions that deal with the uncertain health risks caused by Covid-19, the first one and the application of precautionary principle in practice, and the second one on the growing problem of ‘onslaught of health disinformation’. The next two articles focus on the extent to which Covid-19 has impacted the cross-border mobility of people in the EU and the mobility of people within a Member State, and how this affects EU and national law. The special issue then turns to the socio-economic consequences of Covid-19, which are analysed from the perspective of vulnerable position of creditors in the event of insolvency, the perspective of the Eurozone and the models of solidarity upon which the EMU is based, and the perspective of the position of vulnerable workers and their social rights which are enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The extent to which private companies are involved in tackling the Covid-19 crisis and how EU competition law (should) respond(s) to this, is discussed in the contribution hereafter. Finally the special issue zooms in to a contribution on the principle of solidarity that – once again – plays a pivotal role in times of crises.