The economic context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Mediterranean countries : A comparative analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic and the related political and economic crisis had serious negative effects on most Mediterranean countries. The paper aims to examine the measures introduced by the governments concerned to ease the crisis both from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. The impact of the activities of similar purpose of the institutions of the European Union are also the focus of the research, with emphasis on the state-aid framework of the European Commission aimed at supporting the economy, and the unfortunate speech of 12 March, 2020 of ECB president Christine Lagarde, which endangered the euro and caused an extreme increase in the sovereign spreads in most of the countries concerned, endangering their banking systems. The main expected results of the research are as follows. Based on the analysis of legislative measures and communications, an evaluation of the relevant actors (governments and EU institutions) will be established. This will be supplemented with the potential implications of the research for future decision-makers concerning how they can learn from how the crisis in these countries was (mis)treated.