Janusz Pietkiewicz: "Services of General Interest and the Pandemic"

As February turned into March, while studies and debates were taking place, we shared in the joyful Martenitsa celebrations of our Bulgarian friends, as we do at this time every year. We wore thin bracelets of braided red and white string and little woollen ragdolls were given as a token of good luck. The optimism of the coming spring was palpable. We wished each other success for the final stage of the five-year term of office at the EESC.

We instinctively stayed away from the threat to our orderly lives in the heart of the EU posed by the virus that was spreading in Asia. It's true that signs and serious warnings were already reaching us from southern Europe, but we had to protect the procedures of the European institutions from the pandemic. And besides, as our colleagues from beyond the Danube joked, as a last resort a drop of medicine from the home pharmacy – i.e. Martenitsa rakia – couldn't hurt. Indeed, calls for disinfectants in meeting rooms were ignored, but we were always ensured that the risk was being carefully monitored, so our fears about the virus were assuaged.

As of Wednesday 11 March, I was still discussing recommendations on the sustainable Europe investment plan in the ECO/505 study group. In the sections, we made action plans and booked our next trips, and then suddenly, a week later, life ground to a halt. Lockdown! I could compare it metaphorically to a train suddenly slamming on the breaks, shooting sparks from under its wheels.

No one expected the containment measures that were growing stricter every day. It struck at the very foundations of our lives. It was a psychological tsunami, peculiar, as the poet Ildefons Gałczyński would say, "a sadness flowing through the mindset". It was surprise at the need to stay at home and the everyday fear. It was questions about the possibility of getting help and essential products, rethinking our habits.

I didn't think that I would not come back to Brussels until June, travelling by car along empty highways, because the flights had not started running again. I remember printing out the "license" to travel that I received by email from the secretary-general – the COVID-19 laissez-passer, issued on 29 May 2020 in four languages and adorned with an imposing round stamp. This was meant to guarantee that I would not be held in quarantine.

To be on the safe side, I confirmed this by phone with the German Gesundheitsamt offices of the regions I had to travel through. On 8 June in Brussels I took part in the first hybrid meeting of the ECO/510 study group and then in the plenary session of 10 and 11 June.

Public and social media were already flooded with commentary and suspicions as to the imagined real creators of the virus. It's a shame that, at least for the time being, it has not led to a contemporary masterpiece along the lines of Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th century Decameron or Albert Camus's 1947 novel The Plague, which truly demonstrate the shortcomings of human nature and the fight of humanity against disease.

In terms of the experience of the worldwide lockdown and warnings of a further attack of SARS-CoV-2, this time in combination with seasonal flu, which costs many lives each year in many countries – even more so than COVID-19 currently does, I thought about the meaning of "services of general interest", which have been neglected for decades.

The COVID-19 pandemic finally demonstrated the highly important and stabilising function of local, regional and Europe-wide suppliers of these services. The social sphere has finally started to believe in their essential role, which is the backbone of the European social model and potentially of a positive recovery of the economy in the framework of the Next Generation EU and European Green Deal instruments.

Energy and water services, waste processing and public transport in times of economic crisis have ensured that the ebbs and flows of life in our communities can continue and have provided security. After all, without previous investments in these sectors, it would not be possible to deal with everyday issues, like taking a morning shower at home, making coffee, or getting to work or the hospital on time. This also applies to issues of healthcare, care for people with disabilities and elderly people. They would not work without crisis management procedures, or if services of general interest had not found political understanding and public support.

Similarly, we need to look at the hugely important area of education, research and the general concept of culture, and only then can we complain about the difficulties we have experienced during the crisis.