BRUSSELS – European Union leaders are convening Thursday for their third summit in three weeks as they battle to contain the spread of the coronavirus and its devastating health impact while managing the havoc the disease is wreaking on their 27 economies.
As the number of deaths in Europe from COVID-19 soared to beyond 12,000 people, Spain has prolonged a state of emergency that will allow it to impose broader lockdowns, while French President Emmanuel Macron launched “Operation Resilience,” a military-backed response to combat the illness.
To help coordinate the actions of the 27 countries that make up the world’s biggest trading bloc, the European Commission — guardian of the EU’s rule books — has permitted unprecedented border and