Will the European Union Hold Up Against the Cold Front?
The cold front currently hitting Europe reaches it's third week, with a death toll of 300 people and rising. The unusually cold weather that started in East Europe at the end of January has swept across most European countries covering them with a blanket of snow and ice.
Countries such as Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Serbia seemed to have suffered the worst of the it with well below average temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius. Tragically a large number of homeless people were found frozen in fire escapes or makeshift shelters accounting for a large percentage of the fatalities so far.
As the cold front moved west over the weekend it wreaked havoc to more European countries such as France, Italy as Rome recorded heavy snow after 27 years, Greece where some areas were flooded and the UK as London Heathrow had to cancel a third of its flights and other airports across the country were shut down due to icy runways causing a major disruption to transportation and tourism.
Needless to say this weather is stretching public service resources to the limits as people are snowed in their homes or looking for food and shelter. The infrastructure is also failing in some countries with numerous power outages reported and transportation grinding to a halt. Trees have also caused considerable damage as they break, closing off roads and damaging cars and houses.
In view of all this chaos, which meteorologists are saying might last for another week, does the European Union have enough funds to recover ? With countries like Greece and Italy heavily affected, what will be the effects on their existing debts and as a result, on the European Union ? Almost every other member state in East and Central Europe has been badly affected and each country needs to provide for its own.
As the cold front is set to move on further west, countries like Ireland and Spain have been put on alert, however despite colder temperatures and snow forecast it seems that the worst of it is over.
The effect of this cold weather on the European Union's economy is yet to be seen as most of Europe is at a standstill. We can only wish that as the sun shines again it brings with it hope to all the families who have fallen victims to this tragedy.
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