Introduction

• Author: Maillard, Robin; Zalc, Julien
• Pages: 5-7

5

This report presents the ndings of a survey of Euro-

pean citizens about their views on the Coronavirus

crisis. The survey has been conducted in three waves,

the rst taking place in April-May 2020, the second in

June 2020, and the third (the focus of this report) in

September-October 2020.

Covid-19 is a Coronavirus, which surfaced in Wuhan,

China and has rst been notied in December 2019.

Ever since, it has spread throughout the world. The

World Health Organization has declared the situation a

pandemic. Starting 31 December 2019 and as of 3 No-

vember 2020, more than 47 million cases have been

reported, including around 1,207,000 deaths. There

were around 10 million reported cases in Europe at

this time, including around 273,000 deaths1.

European countries imposed nationwide lockdowns

during March, instructing citizens to stay at home and

avoid non-essential travel. By the second half of April,

infection rates in most European countries had begun

to fall, and countries gradually started to lift restrictions

on movement outside the home, social gatherings and

opening of shops, services, schools and sport. However,

infection rates in Europe began to rise again in August,

with sharp increases in September and October. This

has led national governments to re-impose restrictions.

As for the rst wave, it is important to note that the

resurge of coronavirus infections hit Member States at

dierent moments. When the survey was conducted,

parts of Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Czech

Republic were among the rst areas to register an

alarming growth in infection rates while the health sys-

tems in most Member States could still cope relatively

1 https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases. Accessed 4 November 2020

2 https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response/overview-commissions-response_en

3 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2021

well with the number of cases. It is also important to

underline the considerable variations in the specic re-

strictions imposed by dierent countries; Sweden and

to a certain degree also The Netherlands for example

had implemented less restrictive measures than other

countries during the rst wave. Also now in autumn,

the severity of measures varies, inuencing therefore

also citizens’ attitudes and responses. In addition, the

health and economic crisis has had asymmetric eects

within Europe so far.

The European Union has been working to contain the

spread of the Coronavirus, support national health

systems and counter the socio-economic impacts of

the pandemic at both national and EU level. Meas-

ures adopted relate to the economy, supporting re-

search for treatment, diagnostics and vaccines, public

health, borders and mobility as well as and ghting

disinformation2.

The coronavirus pandemic represents a very large

shock for the global and EU economies, with severe

economic and social consequences. The resurgence of

the pandemic in recent weeks is causing additional dis-

ruptions as national authorities introduce new public

health measures to limit the spread of the pandemic.

The epidemiological situation means that growth

projections over the forecast horizon are subject to an

extremely high degree of uncertainty and risks.

The autumn 2020 Economic Forecast projects that the

euro area economy will contract by 7.8% in 2020 before

growing 4.2% in 2021 and 3% in 2022. The forecast projects

that the EU economy will contract by 7.4% in 2020 before

recovering with growth of 4.1% in 2021 and 3% in 20223.

INTRODUCTION