This week marks the start of the sixth-month German presidency of the European Union. As has happened to many an EU member state before them, the Germans have already found find their original presidency agenda overtaken by events, notably the coronavirus crisis. Indeed, we might well call this the Sturm and Drang presidency after the German literary movement in which emotions took centre stage following a period in which literature was dominated mostly by rationalism.

The global coronavirus pandemic has hurt most businesses and helped a few—think videoconferencing services—but there is one sector which is almost going about “business as usual”: the European Union institutions.