Covid-19 Containment Policies in Europe

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Frontmatter

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2. Chapter 1. A Comparative Journey into COVID-19 Policies in Europe

   • Open Access

   Clara Egger, Raul Magni-Berton

   Abstract

   This introductory chapter discusses the specificities of crisis-management during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and presents the main purpose of this book. It highlights the importance of collecting comparative and legislative data on pandemic containment to be able to evaluate emergency public policies. It then presents the EXCEPTIUS dataset, its methods and the indicators it uses to capture the stringency of COVID-19 exceptional policies. Based on legal data from 32 European countries, this dataset documents a high degree of variability between these countries, particularly regarding the concentration of power and the reduction of individual liberties.

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3. Chapter 17. Conclusion: Learning from the COVID-19 Cases for Future Emergencies

   • Open Access

   Clara Egger, Raul Magni-Berton, Eugénie de Saint-Phalle

   Abstract

   This concluding chapter offers recommendations for the future of emergency policymaking. The contributions gathered in this edited volume found that the policies implemented during the pandemic heavily depended on what had been done before. We argue that more attention should be paid to the principle of proportionality, especially in countries with low levels of institutional trust. Also, investing in legal preparedness is crucial to face situations where the emergency could lead to both ineffective policies and unnecessary curtailment of individual rights. Finally, in many countries, we have observed severe restrictions on data access that reduce the quality of evidence we can provide. We advocate the principle of evidence-based information restriction to promote access to information on a reasonable basis.

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4. Patterns of Crisis Decision-Making

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 2. What’s in a Name? European Uses of States of Exception During COVID-19

      • Open Access

      Clara Egger

      Abstract

      The COVID-19 pandemic has led a large range of European governments to rely on emergency powers to try to contain the pandemic. While emergency legislation grants the executive with more extensive powers to handle an immediate threat to the survival of a community, the extent of such powers, their modalities of activation as well as the monitoring and other roles of counterpowers vary from one country to the next. This chapter analyses the diversity of practices and legal provisions hidden behind the reference to a “state of emergency.” It first shows that the legal basis of such provisions differs. While some governments activated constitutional provisions, others relied on pre-existing crisis-management legal frameworks. Second, the timing and duration of emergency measures ranged from 65 days (Estonia) to 861 (France). It then assesses whether differences in the legal framework used translated into differences in the stringency of the measures introduced. On the one hand, state of emergency provisions shield democracy against a concentration of powers in the hands of the executive better than disaster-management legislation does. On the other hand, the activation of emergency powers also coincides with more stringent restrictions of fundamental rights. In strengthening legal preparedness to future crises, policy makers need to be particularly cautious in devising legal arsenals that maintain high levels of democratic governance and oversight in crisis times.

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   3. Chapter 3. The Role of Parliaments in Exceptional Times

      • Open Access

      Corentin Poyet

      Abstract

      What is the role of Parliaments during the COVID-19 pandemic? Countries had to adjust their decision-making procedures to address the challenges posed by the pandemic. In most countries, this has been done by strengthening the position of the executive bodies. However, the chapter shows that one cannot only argue about the decline of the Parliaments. Yes, they did not play a significant role in the daily management of the pandemic, and fast-track legislation and restrictions on gatherings were additional hurdles. Yet, many Parliaments were able to adapt to the “new state of the world” mainly by developing original oversight instruments to keep governments accountable. The pandemic has, thus, revealed and certainly accelerated a trend of declining parliamentary influence in policymaking compensated by the development of oversight instruments. The chapter also highlights the importance of political contexts in appreciating these changes.

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   4. Chapter 4. Elections and Special Voting Arrangements

      • Open Access

      Piret Ehin, Liisa Talving

      Abstract

      The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive effect on elections worldwide. Faced with health risks that a mass event such as an election poses, national decision-makers have had to make two major choices: whether to hold elections as scheduled or postpone them, and whether and how to modify the way elections are conducted. With regard to the second question, both policy and academic debates have focused on the introduction and expansion of special voting arrangements, including early, postal, proxy and remote internet voting, as well as the availability of the mobile ballot box. This chapter examines policy responses to the pandemic in the realm of election management in 27 member states of the European Union (EU), focusing on decisions to hold, postpone and modify elections. We find that 15 out of 60 scheduled national, regional and local elections were delayed in EU-27 over the first two years of the pandemic, with the length of the delay varying from seven weeks to nearly half a year. Most of the postponed events were local elections scheduled for the spring of 2020. In nationwide elections held amid the health crisis, voter turnout fell by 2.9 percentage points on average. We also find extensive differences among EU countries in terms of the use of special voting arrangements (SVAs). While 16 countries introduced new SVAs or expanded existing ones during the first two years of the pandemic, the modifications were, overall, limited in scope, attesting to the complexities of changing electoral legislation and practices over a short period of time. While the question of how to conduct elections amid the pandemic gave rise to heated debates in many EU countries, the controversies were most pronounced—and contributed to democratic backsliding—in settings where democracy had been eroding already before the health crisis.

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   5. Chapter 5. Varieties of Democracies in the COVID-19 Pandemic

      • Open Access

      Daniel Kübler

      Abstract

      For democratic governments, the COVID-19 pandemic was a nightmare. Measures aiming to halt the spread of the coronavirus, such as contact restrictions, travel bans, lockdowns, curfews, certificate and vaccination requirements were not just inconveniences in everyday life. Some of these measures also led to restrictions on fundamental rights or affected the exercise of political rights that are central to democracy. Decision-making processes were also accelerated and shortened, the separation of powers shifted in favour of the executive, sometimes resulting in a loss of democratic control and accountability. This chapter investigates how different democracies fared in the pandemic and what impact the COVID-19 crisis had on the quality of democracy. The present chapter adds to existing literature by examining the relationship between the quality of democracy and legislative activities involved in policy responses to the pandemic. The analysis first shows that higher quality democracies have a larger share of acts decided by parliament instead of government or the administration. The chapter then zooms into the case of Switzerland, the only democratic country in the world where the electorate were able to vote three times on the COVID-19 legislation. The clear results of the referendums impressively showed the broad support of citizens for the government’s Corona measures—despite the drastic restrictions on individual freedoms that they entailed.

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   6. Chapter 6. Territorial Countervailing Powers Under the Pandemic

      • Open Access

      Raul Magni-Berton

      Abstract

      Federal and decentralised countries are often expected to perform worse in crises for two reasons. First, they require more coordination resources, which are particularly costly when decisions must be made quickly. Second, in federal countries, subnational territories are countervailing powers. Counterpowers favour consensual policies but prevent policy changes and make countries less responsive to crises. While in economic crises this expectation is not clearly congruent with the data, during the COVID-19 pandemic much attention has been paid to its management in federal countries. The comparisons within federal states and between federal and centralised states were intended to illustrate different ways of dealing with the pandemic. Other studies assume that federal states are less efficient and try to find solutions. More surprisingly, no systematic study has attempted to assess whether decentralised management is less effective. This chapter takes advantage of EXCEPTIUS data, which covers the management of the pandemic at the subnational level to address this gap. Interestingly, France, like several other unitary states, has progressively decentralised its pandemic management. Federal states, such as Germany or Switzerland, were decentralised at the beginning of the pandemic, but centralised their management in subsequent waves. In regionalised states, such as Italy and Spain, the evolution of the regions’ competences follows contrasting patterns. The analysis of the role of territorial units and counter-powers in the management of the first three waves of the pandemic (January 2020–April 2021) makes it possible to identify in detail the type of approach chosen by each country and why. This systematic review allows a first preliminary assessment of the relative effectiveness of decentralised versus centralised management by comparing the lethality of the pandemic according to the territorial style of management, with inconclusive results.

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5. Human Rights Protection in Crisis Times

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 7. Limits and Lessons of COVID-19 Apps

      • Open Access

      Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, Oskar J. Gstrein

      Abstract

      While modern technologies—for example, in the form of airplanes facilitating international travel—enabled the coronavirus virus to spread rapidly, they were also the foreground in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably in the rapid development of novel vaccines, as well as smartphone apps used to locate, track and alert individuals to the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This chapter investigates what happened, how, and what is likely to emerge from what we characterise as a timid turn to COVID-apps in Europe during the initial outbreak of the pandemic. Our central argument is that COVID-app reliance re-turned to and extended a long-standing emphasis on digital technologies, as quick fixes to complex socio-ecological problems, a tendency known more widely as ‘technosolutionism’. Our analysis expands the growing literature on COVID-19 era technosolutionism in two ways. First, we explain how smartphone apps showed anxious citizens and consumers the rapid responsiveness of both governments and companies to the emergency in ways that navigated tensions between privacy and surveillance. Second, we elaborate how app-based responses have solidified an increasingly permanently ‘datafied’ emergency management infrastructure that threatens the very solution governments and technology firms sought between desires for privacy and surveillance. Our chapter concludes by pointing to further lessons to explore from this case of technosolutionism in troubled times.

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   3. Chapter 8. The Impact of Measures Against COVID-19 on Freedom of Press and Expression

      • Open Access

      Catarina Neves, Roberto Merrill, Ricardo Miguel, Rui Forte

      Abstract

      This chapter aims to analyse the impact of the first measures against COVID-19 regarding freedom of press and freedom of expression in the first pandemic wave (from January to June 2020). To do this, we used EXCEPTIUS data and discuss whether the policies used to fight COVID-19, particularly those targeting the spread of information, contributed to the erosion of fundamental rights and freedoms in the European context. Our chapter describes how restrictive measures varied across Europe and engages in a normative debate on the extent to which liberal democracies had a legitimate claim to restrict freedom to fight COVID-19. It is a debate on whether freedom of expression should be curtailed or not, a process that might lead to the erosion of democracy, or instead contribute to making it more robust, particularly in the context of a public health crisis, such as the one imposed by COVID-19.

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   4. Chapter 9. Restrictions on Religious Worship

      • Open Access

      Wojciech Brzozowski, Maksymilian Hau, Oliwia Rybczyńska

      Abstract

      At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to curve the spread of the novel coronavirus became everyone’s overriding focus, and the measures which cut people off from their social life did not spare religious freedom. In fact, this freedom became one of their first collateral victim of the pandemic since churches were commonly identified as hotbeds for infection. The chapter addresses restrictions on religious worship, thus contributing to the extant literature on this topic by generalising examples from several jurisdictions. By doing so, our analysis uncovers patterns in the legal response to COVID-19 and its impacts on religious worship. We show that, on paper, light restrictions on religious practice prevailed during the COVID-19 pandemic and did not discriminate any specific religious denomination. We then preliminary assess the design of restrictions in the light of the requirements established by the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Our chapter also contrasts how restrictions were implemented in different way across Europe. This empirical investigation allows us to draw recommendations on how to best safeguard freedom of religious worship in crises.

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   5. Chapter 10. Freedom of Movement

      • Open Access

      José Enrique Conde Belmonte, Ana María Huesca González, Paloma Villacián Goncer

      Abstract

      Using comparative data from EXCEPTIUS combined with a focus on some typical country cases, this chapter compares the different restrictions to freedom of movement imposed by European countries. The European experience with restrictions on freedom of movement has been incredibly diverse and mixed. In this way, we can see that many EU Member States not only decided to close their external borders and suspend the freedoms linked to the Schengen area (e.g., by closing airports during the first wave), but in some cases limiting or even restricting mobility between municipalities and regions. The general line regarding movement restrictions in most cases would be limited only to the prohibition for nationals not to leave and for foreigners or non-residents to enter the country. However, in some more extreme or restrictive cases, prohibitions affected local entities of lower rank, including time restrictions and specific mobility limitations. The first part of the chapter delimits the legal framework used to regulate freedom of movement in the EU Member States. It then goes on with an evaluation of the different restrictions adopted by these governments. By doing so, the chapter provides a broad overview of the different and sometimes contradictory measures taken by national governments and other administrative entities, in addition to providing a human rights perspective.

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   6. Chapter 11. COVID-19 and Asylum Rights

      • Open Access

      Cristina Churruca-Muguruza, Anca Cretu, Gorka Urrutia-Asua

      Abstract

      Most countries in Europe and around the world adopted a vast array of measures and, especially during the first stages of the pandemic, many had a marked punitive and coercive nature. Governments used states of exception to curtail the rights of migrants and asylum seekers with a certain degree of impunity. In this context, the aim of this chapter is to explore the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on the experiences of migrants and asylum seekers in the European Union (EU). To do so, it first discusses the main policy responses in the EU context and their implications for fundamental rights, specifically for the right to asylum. Then, special emphasis is given to the European Southern border, a critical intersection that illustrates the challenges and dilemmas faced by EU Mediterranean states in balancing public health priorities and human rights responsibilities. The chapter specifically focuses on the case study of the Spanish city of Melilla. Here, the merging of pandemic measures, border control and the treatment of vulnerable populations becomes visible, offering insights into the broader socio-political implications of the pandemic.

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6. Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 12. Stay at Home! A Comparative Analysis of the Implementation of Lockdowns as a Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

      • Open Access

      Laura Chazel

      Abstract

      The year 2020 was marked by the implementation of lockdowns at the global scale to contain the COVID-19 pandemic by drastically minimizing human contacts. This public health measure was instantly described as “medieval” by several political actors but, facing the surge of the pandemic, most governments—with a few exceptions such as Sweden—opted for this choice. Social sciences literature has already begun to analyse the feelings and emotions of citizens towards lockdowns, the impact of health measures on trust in governments, the responses of so-called “populist” parties to this restriction of freedom of movement or the political aspect of lockdowns that were presented as health measures during the first wave of COVID-19. However, few studies have examined the different realities that lockdown measures recovered depending on the country in which they were implemented and the evolutions of these measures over time. This chapter aims to fill this gap and has a double objective. On the one hand, it aims to highlight these differences, and on the other hand to highlight the explanatory factors at the origins of these differences. The comparative analysis will be based on a database covering 32 countries to distinguish between strict and more flexible lockdowns by means of different variables such as the order to “stay home”, the number of kilometres of travel allowed outside home, or the presence or self-filled forms for leaving home. The study period is from March 2020 to July 2021 and spans across three different waves of COVID-19. A double synchronic and diachronic analysis will be performed to categorize the countries according to the strictness of the lockdowns for each wave but also in an evolutionary way to perform an average over the study period. The first results show that there is no correlation between the measures adopted by the countries and the actual circulation of the virus. One can also observe great divergences between countries according to the waves. For example, during the first wave, Southern Europe adopted much more drastic lockdown measures than Northern Europe, a trend that was subsequently reversed. These results will be controlled by the level of GDP or the confidence of citizens in institutions to understand the origin of these differences and their evolutions.

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   3. Chapter 13. Masks and Social Distancing During COVID-19

      • Open Access

      Eugénie de Saint-Phalle

      Abstract

      This chapter of the book addresses the most widespread (and controversial) COVID-19 measure: social distancing and wearing of the masks. Social distancing, that is, keeping distance between people in public spaces and decreasing the number of social contacts, was one of the first health-related measures that were introduced in March–April 2020 in most countries. However, the strictness of these measures, as well as government’s understanding of how the virus spreads, varied a lot. In some countries, people were asked to keep their distance at 2 m from each other, in other countries one-meter distance was considered to be enough. Moreover, open and closed spaces were not treated equally; in Switzerland, for example, people were required to keep distance in open spaces like parks, but not in closed spaces like supermarkets. In Belgium, April 2020 legal acts actively discouraged people to wear masks. This chapter aims to present an overview of legal responses to the health requirements, that is, how European governments integrated the medical advice into the exceptional measures. Secondly, this chapter seeks to map and classify these responses against infection levels, death count, as well as country-specific system factors. Finally, it aims to reconstruct the public response to mask wearing, a highly controversial measure in numerous European countries.

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   4. Chapter 14. Education in Times of COVID-19

      • Open Access

      Olga Litvyak

      Abstract

      The COVID-19 policies in the education sector have been particularly diverse, often with distinct approaches adopted not only across Europe but even at the regional level within one country, for example, in Spain or Germany. Furthermore, there has been a wide range of measures depending on the level of education. While universities largely switched to online learning, nursery and primary schools that initially also faced restrictions on face-to-face learning became crucial in providing support to parents working from home in the later stage of the pandemic. School closures during the lockdown periods largely disrupted education, leading to potential long-term consequences for children and increasing existing educational inequalities. Emerging research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education sector has shown that suspension of in-person learning has contributed to learning loss, exacerbating achievement gaps in several European countries and negatively impacted students’ well-being. At the same time, the switch to distance learning accelerated the digitalisation of education institutions and education systems across Europe, amplifying economic disparities across the countries. With digital learning becoming the dominant policy measure, supranational actors, such as the EU and the UN intensified competition for global education governance, proposing own policy solutions. This chapter discusses differences and similarities in education policy measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic in the countries of the European Economic Area and the role of supranational actors. It explores the country-level factors that influenced the policymaking process, such as economy, ideological stances of the government, level of education governance within the country, contrasting them with the COVID-19-related developments, such as the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Thus, it aims at providing an in-depth comparative examination of the emergency policymaking in the field of education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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   5. Chapter 15. Compulsory Medical Examinations and “Green Pass”

      • Open Access

      Clara Egger, Raul Magni-Berton

      Abstract

      To manage the COVID-19 pandemic, European governments have combined restrictive measures with a close monitoring of the epidemiological situation. The most stringent measures—such as the imposition of lockdowns, curfews and the closure of national borders—have always been justified by epidemiological indicators, in particular the evolution of COVID-19 cases and deaths. At the same time, the relaxing of containment measures has often come with the requirement to undergo compulsory medical examinations. This chapter discusses two types of medical procedures: compulsory testing policies predating the mass roll out of COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 passes. We show that, compared to other types of policies, the modalities of the pass were similar in the 26 European countries surveyed. Yet, its role and the epidemiological context in which it was implemented varied. Some countries introduced it when infections or deaths were increasing, while others did so during more stable periods. The vaccination rate following the introduction of the pass also varied. In countries with high vaccination rates but low confidence in vaccines, the impact of the pass was almost nil; conversely, it was high in countries with high confidence but low vaccination rates. Overall, we show the effectiveness of the COVID-19 pass to be context-dependent and preventing a blanket use in diverse countries.

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   6. Chapter 16. Lockdowns and Mobility Rate Variation in the COVID-19 Era

      • Open Access

      Rossella Vulcano

      Abstract

      This chapter assesses the impact of lockdowns on mobility rates. It notes the variation in mobility rates during lockdowns and the importance of understanding why citizens in different countries respond differently. The results suggest that the severity of lockdowns and the capacity to enforce the rules significantly reduce mobility rates. Interestingly, however, trust in government also significantly influences the impact of restrictions on mobility rates. Finally, the influence of COVID-19 risk perception on compliance does not appear to be very relevant. The research highlights the importance of political factors in shaping compliance during crises and provides insights for policy makers.

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7. Backmatter

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