this is. from berlin tonight as the corona virus pandemic rages on germany's chancellor says it's too early to talk about life after the virus. said the pandemic is the biggest test to do european union has ever faced but she promised to do all she can to ensure that the e.u. emerges stronger from this crisis also coming up are we entering the era of the surveillance state strict lockdowns in europe to stop the virus or also infringing on civil liberties what danger is there that those limits will remain once the

pandemic is gone. off it's good to have you with us. offered help today in the pandemic she suggested that germany is ready to help the european union get back to economic health once this and demick is over she said that it is in germany's interest that europe should emerge strongly from what she called the e.u.'s biggest test in its exact existence at the same time germany is to impose a 2 week quarantine on citizens and long term residents returning from travel abroad. back in the chancellery after 2 weeks in coron 1003 negative current virus tests german chancellor angela merkel made her return.

in my opinion europe the european union is facing its biggest test since its foundation our populations are also facing a huge health challenge. all the e.u. member states are being affected on varying levels we're all affected. and so it must be in everyone's interest and it is in germany's interest that europe should emerge strongly from this test. for good as merkel voiced her concerns for europe on monday the government's crisis group agreed to institute a 2 week quarantine for people returning to germany from a full 10th all german nationals e.u. citizens and other longtime residents who return after several days abroad will have to quarantine themselves for 14 days there are however exceptions. including seasonal workers in agriculture commute travelling to work truck drivers

delivering goods and of course medical professionals. germany also announced on monday the latest extension to its $1.00 trillion euros coronavirus crisis package a guarantee of 100 percent loans to small and medium sized businesses up 280-0000 euros. these middle companies are widely seen as the heart of the german economy. i would even try to without it anyone who was economically active last year those who registered turnover those who recorded normal economic activity and made a profit they can get 3 months turnover as a loan from the bank which in this case will be 100 percent financially underwritten by us. that means the banks will not have to do normal financial risk assessments this 100 percent guarantee means the process will be completed very quickly. now germany's european neighbors tell

you i'm looking to that name to see whether macas concerns but also their time into financial support for that. are this bill in our chief political correspondent melinda crane good evening to you bill and you know we've heard the chancellor today calling this this pandemic the biggest crisis that the european union has faced italy and spain they're struggling with it we know that there is a lot of anti e.u. sentiment we've seen what the big door bar has done in hungary is pressure increasing on germany now to to do more to help more than it normally would. absolutely it is and the chancellor's remarks this afternoon essentially amounted to an attempt to prepare germans for the idea that they will need to support other e.u. member countries even while their own economy is taking a hit as she put it germany only does well when the e.u. it does well and she said that we will need to see more european solidarity coming

out of this crisis she outlined a couple of different mechanisms by which the e.u. can provide exceptional assistance in times of crisis that compare a century to a natural catastrophe but what she did not mention was the particular instrument that spain and italy have been pushing hardest namely the so-called corona bonds they would amount to a mutualization of debt in which stronger northern economies essentially would become partly responsible for the debt of weaker member states but that was quite noticeable in the fact that she omitted that instrument there's a taboo that remains a taboo there is a lot of talk about a possible exit strategy from the lock downs that we're seeing across europe reporters were asking about that again today in london and also here in berlin and the german chancellor she's not giving reporters what they wanted to hear is she.

well she said she absolutely would be remiss the entire government would be remiss if they were not thinking day and night about how to lift the very tough restrictions that they have imposed and she said you can be assured that we are doing that and yet with all concern for the economic consequences public health must come 1st and will continue to come 1st and she said that while germany has made some progress in reducing the rate of reproduction of the virus the rate at which the new infections occur she said we're not where we need to be and we will not be lifting the restrictions until we are so she basically let germans know those restrictions will remain in place at least until the middle of next week and she said when they are lifted it will be a step by step process and we will be saying for some time that we are still living in the midst of a pandemic and for the time being we're still worried about the nurses and doctors

having enough protective equipment mass for example was the situation in germany tonight absolutely and she had a couple of things to say about that 1st of all she said we need to see greater european self-sufficiency in the production of personal productive protective equipment she also said that while germany had improved its procurement of masks and other such goods it still wasn't where it wanted to be and of course we have seen diversions of shipments of masks to this country and then finally she said that with all due consideration for the wearing of masks the fact is the key measure to take remains social distancing and she said if you do decide to use a mask be aware that it's very important to keep it clean that it's very important to change it so some very detailed instructions from the chancellor on that boy is a scientist after all one degree not chief political correspondent on the story for

us tonight melinda thank you. well here's some of the other coronavirus headlines that are making news this hour more than 10000 people have died from quote a virus infections in the united states andrew cuomo the governor of the hardest hit state of new york says the number of hospitalizations and deaths is no excuse me has now begun by towing he has extended however the lockdown in the state to the 29th of april british prime minister boris johnson is in the hospital in london he was admitted yesterday because his coronavirus symptoms are persisting in not getting better but downing street says that this is not an emergency johnson has tweeted that he is in good spirits and remains in touch with is kept from the crowds walked elms and surveillance arrests european union governments are taking measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus measures that would have seemed impossible just a few weeks ago but these restrictions on silver liberty civil liberties are deemed

a matter of wife and death but activists worry that when the crisis is over emergency measures could become part of a new norm. this is europe and a lockdown measures that i'm president in peacetime are now in place to combat covered 90 we have seen across europe governments and across the world and. implementing measures that even a month ago would have been unimaginable to many of us sam already fear that the measures could out the coronavirus crisis what is the bequests. europe 750000000 residents have already seen their rights of freedom of movement have really restricted it breaking the rules can mean finds people diagnosed with coverage 19 in italy for example could face prison time if they break karen time

other measures being taken around europe. less visible carriers are sharing data with health authorities in countries like italy germany and austria to help authorities monitor whether people off following rules the danger is anonymized but days hell egot austria health ministry best site has already raise privacy concerns many european leaders are stressing that new measures are limited in time but one country's heading down a more radical path hungary the country's parliament has endorsed a bill giving nationalist prime minister the char ban the power to indefinitely extend a state of emergency andrew by decree it's kind of suspicious why they say ok guys you know. after. just. being vile and that the e.u. country france offers an example of how emergency measures can stick around longer

than anticipated after the terror attacks in paris and 2015 the government declared a state of emergency and shows of criticize the fact that these exceptional powers will lead to reach into law experts say the current crisis calls for emergency measures but what struck to caution one of the un special rapporteur swedish it we may survive the health crisis but if we don't tend to our own democracies we have lost the war. does europe need to be on guard not only for its health but for its democracies talk about that i'm joined now by alexander stubb he's the former prime minister of finland in may he's due to take over as director of the school of transnational governance in italy it's good to have you on the show mr worried are you that the steps being taken now to stop this pandemic will become permanent limits on our democracies here in europe. well i'm not excessively worried but

i do keep an eye on what's going on because i've been of the day it's essentially a balance between control and freedom and the european union obviously and our member states were based on a set of values freedom. democracy rule of lol and once you start impinging on those i think you're in the danger zone so i would do you know wave or yellow flag of hungary but the rest i think i'd still stay pretty call what you say the danger zone isn't that exactly where hungary is right now and just a few days ago the prime minister you know he managed to get parliament to give him the power to rule by decree there is no emergency that would justify that but he still got that power and the european union has been relatively quiet since then is the e.u. going to accept this not in the long run i must say that i think a lot of us are worried about what's going on under it because in other member states you've taken certain degrees but usually they have very time limited i think

the reaction of european leaders at this particular point is to focus on the virus and trying to contain that and everyone is busy with outside but after this it's over then i think measures will be starting out towards hungary and you'll see them also coming from the e p p the european peoples party as well where finnish. the party of all of the prime minister is a member so you'll see some action coming i think within a few weeks let's talk about what we're seeing in europe right now concerning this pandemic i mean how would you rate the e.u. used coronavirus response in comparison to the decisions that we see coming out of the us and what do you think of the german chancellor angela merkel's one or her strategy at the moment. i think you should probably look at 3 different ways of tackling the virus the 1st one was in china where you kept the information down and then suddenly went for tremendous survey and systems the 2nd one is the united

states where you really downplayed it in the beginning especially from the leadership side and donald trump and we can now see that the u.s. will probably be the most affected country in the world in the 3rd one is the european way where in the beginning we went very native with sort of closed shop and got quite scared and now suddenly we're starting to call for a little bit more about what you usually see is that you blame brussels and then you try to take the credit yourself and would you say that the german chancellor is has she been the glue in the in that the e.u. has needed in this pandemic yeah she's always solid but then again i'm a little bit subjective because she's a good friend of mine i think she's taken all the right measures now we need to move to this stage having said this we need to move to the stage where we start creating big european economic packages and they will be coming from the b.c.b. they will be coming from b. they're coming from the european commission and this is where i think we need

a lot of solidarity coming from germany and other many other countries all right alexander stille former prime minister of affinity this is so we appreciate your insights tonight thank you. you're watching the news i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news our coronavirus special is next. and i want to make a brief statement about laos 1st we strongly and then regev at least for the goals of a neutral and independent layout guy to know outside our own group of powers threatening no one and free from any combination my fellow americans lay off far away from america but the world is. the security of all our.