The EC monitors a lot of components, it has its own methodology. It is great that this time the mechanism is not focused on one area, but has a more comprehensive approach by monitoring the rule of law, democracy and human rights and liberties. In that sense, every country has something to work on, the MEP said in an interview with Monitor news agency.

Stimulating the economy is now the only way out of the crisis. But debt creation should be combined with reforms and a vision for how the debt will be repaid in the future. If not, indeed, future generations will be paying not only the bill but also receiving a very fragile European economy, prone to potential future crises, says Tomi Huhtanen, Executive Director of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, in an interview to Europost. 

The notion that Bulgaria has lost the support of Brussels is being propagated on purpose. Disinformation in Europe is spreading rapidly, especially after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic Reforms constitute a process, and not a single action - therefore, the progress which is reported for our country is accepted as an assessment for a consistent and responsible work, the MEP said in an interview with Monitor News Agency.

The next EU Disability Strategy should absolutely reflect the drastic and profound changes that has been happening and will happen in the EU as a whole – in the European society, in the European economy, in the European political system. It should also mainstream disability rights in the old and in the new policies, says Ioannis Vardakastanis, EESC's Diversity Europe Group Vice-president and President of the European Disability Forum, in an interview to Europost.

The European Commission insists from the beginning of the pandemic that there must be a common European health safety protocol. It should include common criteria for indicating when restrictions should enter into force and of what type they should be. It is better to have a European approach, and that is the reason I inquired with the EC whether it has requested from the Member States to unite around a common health safety protocol,MEP Andrey Kovatchev says in an interview with Monitor news agency..

This virus is pretty unique in its behaviour, perhaps because it was man-made to a certain extent. Or at least that is what some Nobel Prize laureates believe. We, the optimists, got it wrong. Not that extreme pessimist turned out to be right either. Now we are learning to live with the virus. Thankfully, it has gotten less vicious. The big unknown is what will happen in the autumn and the winter, when regular seasonal viruses arrive.

The imposed state of emergency has created unprecedented circumstances. Many cannot make use of their prepaid holiday to a destination abroad and what they share is that their efforts to cancel the arrangement and get a refund or postpone the reservation have been unsuccessful. That is where we come in. The experts of the ECC-Net are tasked with informing consumers about the stipulations laid out in the European and the national legislations, says Sonya Spasova, Director of European Consumer Centre - Bulgaria, in an interview to EUROPOST.

In times of crisis, there can be a blind “rally around the flag” response from the public, the sheep behaviour to follow the leader. People are simply too scared to ask questions or provide oversight and this could result in ceding unwarranted authority, says Laura Thornton, Director for Global Programs at International IDEA, in an interview to EUROPOST.

Covid-19 clearly showed us that Europe is far from a finished product and needs a reboot. The world is changing and geopolitical layers are shifting. If we want to avoid getting squashed between global players, we need a different European Union, a union that is able to protect the interests of our citizens. As currently constructed, the bloc is not equipped to do so, says Ilhan Kyuchyuk, ALDE Party Vice-President and MEP, in an interview to Europost.

EU budget rules are not designed for rescuing, but for operating under normal conditions. Now we have an emergency and you tell Member States that they will get all this money, expecting them to quickly prepare a programme and also spend the funds quickly, but in reality a year will pass until the first euro is spent. If there were absorption problems before, why shouldn't there be absorption problems with this recovery package, says Dr Jorge Nunez Ferrer, Senior Research Fellow at CEPS, in an interview to Europost.