What the European Union is all about how everyone for france 24. 00 m. Falls will be governed paris and im melinda crane for dutch of ella in berlin in the European Union health care has always been handled at the National Level so as the corona pandemic swept the continent it was nation states that were calling the shots even between close e. U. Neighbors borders were closed crucial medical exports were stopped and solidarity was looking pretty illusory but that is now changing with french patients for example being treated in german hospitals and melinda with a crisis that were 2 months into which shows some are calling the biggest test for this continent since world war 2 a lot of questions Going Forward the french president and u. N. Michael calling it a moment of truth ahead of thursdays Virtual Summit there are those that are eyeing did to. De confinements and then other nations that are doubling down what common response can france and germany often dubbed the motor of european unity a rally a continent thats sure to face some major major challenges both within the European Union and from the rest of the world our title today is corona europes moment of truth process that cats and daughter bella t. V. Join up for the debate welcome and joining us from frankfurt hes the former deputy mayor there former student leader of may 68 and former coleader of the green party in the European Parliament thank you so much danielle convention for being with us. And joining us from his Berlin Office is my tam from my shop hes a member of the german bundestag representing fribourg which lies close to the French Border and hes also a member of the Franco GermanParliamentary Assembly welcome thank you. From staus boule holland the banks of the rhine we are pleased to welcome a doctor cmyk by dr youre an emergency physician and also a member of the Municipal Council who has brought thank you for being with us thank you over the past weeks youve been doing a lot less politics and a lot more of your quote unquote day job i know youve been working out of the emergency dispatch it should be pointed out to our viewers as asked the region that porters germany is one of the big clusters here in france originally it was down in the southern part of ads us in that city of new whos of but you also have been feeling the brunt of it we know that the curve is flattened whats the situation like this tuesday. Well this year 3 of them is a stabilization in the number of people tested positive that my team understand visitation of a number of people being persecuted low and then maybe with no hope in people transferred in i. C. U. Which is a. 10 percent or less than the others so we still have people going through the hospital we still have people to think positively of you still have severe cases by the number of people dying and the number of people going to as you only planning see america go by mary when you are 1st saw the cases coming out of china coming out of italy did you think as us would be hit so hard now never. We have the same image 1st the myth that we have from sars or from nurse. Early 2000 and we we thought that we can have something about. Maybe 10 cases in strasbourg and then up in something like. We saw people coming in we still 1st the elderly people. Younger people with when we surveyed cases and we saw people dying you saw people in transfer to i. C. U. You need ice you bet we were really surprised but no one of our colleagues. Didnt think that. Their needs work i mean have these raids in our region. Let me pick up with a question to my town fun marshall whose electoral district is just right across the rhine river from that region that as we have just heard was hit very early and very hard by cove it so mr from russia what has that meant for the people in your district and for your region as a whole. That was and still is very difficult for our region you should probably know that about 40000 people from all sides move to my home region to suit. Basically but they all work in the very important places like for example hospital sir we absolutely need these people and them as a sudden they they couldnt come but also because we decided to close the boy ringback as i was as was defined as a high risk area why was it you find a high risk area. Because the infection spread east exactly in that specific creates room south of koran and there it should jammu was because there was any stretching band with several 1000 people and these people they were very close together and some of the virus spread very fast and then harriet knowledge just these days we can come back to slightly open the borders again which is very important for on a common diet and i hope and we will bring this topic into a meeting of the committee of cross or cooperation where i am a member from the village of williston in this cross border corp this will be a Video Conference this thursday and have very much show that we cannot convince both sides germany and france to make our cross border cooperation more easy in the near future then youre convinced frankel german cooperation well thats literally in your d. N. A. Because youre the citizen of both countries how do you think your 2 nations have risen to the challenge. Difficult its difficult because for the french its difficult to see that it seems that. Its easier to be in germany and that they handle the cold it or the cold it is not so explosive or less explosive that in france and because. This pandemic. Push through national react here so if the 1st safety the senate the safety its a national thing and so are the corporations is is is not good is not good is difficult and i think that the french and the German Government is not doing it well its not doing it today still today you know like they did some wonderful things you know are you know about transfer from france to germany etc yes but even now when you know even if you see the discussion that we have now caught the post by and then make the kind of leak recovery i think that france and france and germany are not on the same track and if france and germany is not on the same track then it would be very difficult in europe we want to we want to come back to that question just a little bit later but let me go now to dr cmyk because we just heard from daniel cohen bend it that in fact there are many people in france who have a sense that somehow the germans are doing it better weve seen some pretty prizing headlines coming out of france lays out among poor croissant you may you know why are they better across the world not only in europe but all over the world it seems that the corona virus is exposing the gaps and deficits in countries Health Systems and in their economies so what would you say you have seen about what needs to change in france. Well what i can say about the difference of 1st of maybe it will be it is. Different from counting the dead people because in front of the people in this period. Also are enduring. That people are counted else. But in germany if you have they other tears or you have hypertension you may be counted differently when i said that i can explain the difference while the other part of the difference is maybe about that the number of bet per capita and you have your money i think its something that our 8. 00 for one family have you done in front its 5. 00 and the number of i. C. U. That you have germany its 2 or 3 times higher than in france so thats going to explain because when you have severe cases your ability to have 20 large or mechanical ventilation supports to save people and if you have more rights you bet and you have merit more i see your doctor and nurse years well trained than you can save people so maybe one of the 1st listen. Its that we need if you show. Public Health Services are we going for the European Union around the world and we need urgently to face other pandemics coming but some might argue about the french spend more per capita on health care than the germans why have they less to offer as you just described. Well because we had the. Where we. Countenance vision on Health Policy in last 20 years the last french government. Was really. I do. A story policy unhurt and they close something about 2000 bets in 5 years so i have some. You will not pay for this because you need these beds for the people and we Emergency Departments are saying that or something about 2 or 3 years that we need beds we need nurses doctors we need budget spending on Public Health structures let me yeah say to daniel come back i know you wanted to weigh in here we want to just bring in a brief report and then id like to come to you right after that so even between the close neighbors in the European Union not only the effect of the virus but also the responses to it have diverged pretty widely the lockdown restrictions here in germany for example were never as drastic as those in france and in fact are now slowly being relaxed my thoughts about our colleague michaud they could has this short report from berlin 4 weeks into nationwide contact restrictions the government is beginning to loosen its tight grip on public life and german chancellor Angela Merkel is cautioning germans to be responsible with their regained freedoms then be at all female lockwood now lifting some of these restrictions but we dont know exactly what the consequences will be. And thats why we have to take this slowly step by step. It would be a great shame if we now knowingly had it into relapse. At varying speeds German Federal states are allowing medium size shops to open but hotels and restaurants have to remain closed people on the streets of berlin not torn between a sense of relief and concern. And style lifting the restrictions to mean go both way is it really depends on how sensibly people behave now emitted no government. When most right their life must go on im not worried that people are going to drop dead around me. By the lord to the shops and people just dont keep their distance you cannot imagine how many wont pass just 5 centimeters away from me and i stand by love for. Public backing for the restrictions imposed has so far been always upwards of 90 percent and im going to mount calls Approval Ratings have also sought Germanys Health system has so far been spared being pushed to the limit now the german chancellor is concerned that germans may over celebrate the easing of prescriptions and it will take at least 2 weeks until she finds out. So let me ask any convent do you share the chancellor is concerned about a premature relaxation of restrictions i know that in a recent interview you praised her leadership for example in comparison with the marshall rhetoric of president knockoffs yes. Internally she is doing well the problem is when she doesnt talk about europe in which we can discuss this after i just want to to come back to the difference between france and germany i think the critics on the german system Health System was exactly the same in the wording before that it was in france we felt so bad. Because there there didnt have enough nurse etc etc the big difference is the federal system the federal system is stronger if its good managed and it is a good manager in germany you have the heads minutes in edge every lenda its white even if they have less money they are there all going as a better lead of these improvised level and this is a big difference between france and germany and i think a part of the German Society will be aware to continue to keep the wonder laugh to meet there will be and a part of our its a problem but at the end you cant lock down for months and months the people in the family dont you cant do it a family with 3 kids in a 60 need apartment is impossible you cant do it 5 with cigarettes and then there it will explode so that all its also the french have to understand that we have to improve existence. Distance etc but we have to open a little bit if not the people who we dont resist to go out without any restrictions because its too hard may i may i just ask my town from marshall to weigh in on this point are you concerned about premature reacts ation of the restrictions. Well i feel that we here members of parliament when we are in discussions with the people of our regions or our constituencies we are raising High Pressure especially from the Business People because they have been there they couldnt they had to work for the last weeks i mean we have programs to support them but lets say those who sell goods in the cities those who run Restaurants Hotels they are basically in a very difficult situation and they are urging us to do must. To do what we can do to relax these districts and regulations and i think for the moment being were going to smooth the way we do instead of eyes we we ask our people to to to cooperate we we try to avoid you know strict measures of course if there is big parties we must be strict and we try to take the people with us and try to make them sensitive due to the fact that weve been not overcome the crisis in the few we just had were need to wait until we have medicare man and vaccination and this will take probably all of almost about a year so we must understand here one benefit is. Again you were just to a certain kind of distance behavior i think we can manage this we can manage it in supermarkets but its its a hot way of which also might be if i may say so differently in the engine countries and maybe during Young Country and in one go other countries because we have different of forms of lets say being close together on not freezing to a distance is different in kind of jersey countries i think we are in between and in southern germany we are somewhat more. State less in amber i think there is a different culture which which we might if that is. Our lets begin. On this issue of the mindset of you can see you can see germany from your window you can almost say since after all its possible you have a tramway line that runs to kevin and on the german side. You heard then you can be there you heard martin brown marshall. Is there a french mindset that makes it harder to observe the rules. And i dont think so or maybe im just going to say before and before answering your question that maybe the 1st difference between france and germany was the. Reaction to facing this crisis in germany they ducked you. Mass you just instructed you and the more loose lockdown in france we have. Where we. Are not a massive distance right that huge debts were reserved for wealthier people and. There we are so good. And now we have a general. May at last something that after tomorrow maybe more than some people. Down there can believe you can see people this way and there is no evidence today apart from. Just one models that dinner or another is better than a specific so i think that we should in our the country with be able to work will have a massive testings right to do so p. C. R. Or so all of their stuff and then out and then proceed by spirits you find look down maybe untruths to people who come through it and i can say that i dont think there is that difference. In france and germany i think it was different its the political discourse of the president michel and why the german president say i think we need to move from fear to trust we should trust people we should trust even in there or in their understanding and begin to understand and began better than what we think they can do yeah one phone call to. Steinmeyer spoke 10 days back he seemed to be all thinking it didnt get the menu and may call for employing martial language in his initial speeches were going to talk more about that in a moment 1st off northwest of where mark is there is the law then border town of carling and there theyve been keeping one essential service open its a report from france 24 dot com a web desk by sample. Of the reader that. You want to. Know. Basis people are looking like again. Hes on the quest for the deposit of human and i want you to the people who even look at message time mcconnell. Read a quote toward another i dont scale in the family. Plan to really listen when you are to get funded. Numb the. Look at it about you. That Mitchell Commission presents vision out of pocket calling us. How fearful of that youre about to. It was on leave and because i want to cause almost feels a kick to just leave it to just you have to get to. Wouldnt like to start from tucson one child about india and one night under. Your tree shot after 5 oclock just. Let me im not your doctor its good you to know it from just a kid. So a great example there of how innovative people capable can become in a crisis necessity being the mother of invention but as you mentioned the town from marshall in fact the border closures have caused a good deal of disruption serious disruption what would you say looking at cross border cooperation as a whole how healthy is Franco German solidarity in general. Basically am i thinking. We hear france and germany im always hearing different views on things but as we discuss together we can find a compromise and if we reach a compromise this all of them can beam down what will 4 of the other Member States of the European Union to follow that is basically how i would like just described. By the ship and im. Very specific partnership of course is the one we are having between the house and us and southwestern germany is specificity bob because we are almost the same college youre on historically even and therefore. I really am very sad about the fact that we have had the border us close and this is counter to go on as i said in the beginning we must open again these borders of coras on them in gaining strict standards of hygenic measurement measures that is quite clear but we must meet again because that is the reason why in europe we build friendships we have a sharing of area all people can move can get together we have these tools in the a