European leaders urge 'collective renewal' of international cooperation amid COVID-19

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, struggling European countries addressed the United Nations General Assembly and said the failure to eradicate the virus was a collective burden. European leaders on Friday, September 25 urged the international community to come together and reinvent global cooperation. 

Read: EU Council President Condemns China At UNGA Over Uighur, Hong Kong

Opportunity for new beginning

Months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are now facing a resurgence of infected cases. As per reports, hospitals and medical professionals in Europe are once again under enormous pressure in the face of COVID-19 second wave.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, “This emergency has, more than a thousand treaties or speeches, made us suddenly realise that we are part of one single world”.

While the Italian prime minister said the pandemic has given the international community “the opportunity for collective renewal,” the EU Council President Charles Michel is reported to have added that the pandemic has revealed that nations are not as strong as they thought themselves to be and said that the world has been thrown into a battle against a single common enemy.

Read: US Pharmaceutical Giant Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Strong Immune Response

However, the pandemic has also exposed multiple cracks within the European Union. EU leaders over the course of the last months have bickered over access to equipment and vaccines, erected barriers among neighbours to keep out virus infections, and struggled to agree on collective solutions to fight COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 32 million people worldwide with the global death toll reaching over 979,000. The US has reported more than 7.2 million positive COVID-19 cases and a death toll of over 200,000.

(With AP inputs, Image: AP)

Read: EU Leader Lashes Out At UK Over Brexit

Read: Paris Attack: EU's Charles Michel Expresses 'full Solidarity' With People Of France