The economy of the European Union in times of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on the European economy. In this article, we analyse the latest figures published by Eurostat for 2020 and the European Commission's Spring Economic Forecast 2021, at the same time providing a more detailed list of the impacts on the European economy by sector, using the Trade-SCAN model developed by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. According to our analysis, Spain has the worst results in terms of employment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), mainly in the four most affected sectors in the European Union (EU), namely, trade; artistic, sports, cultural and recreational activities; business services and accommodation, food and beverage activities. Ireland is remarkable, being the only country with growth in its GDP, mainly due to its exports of pharmaceutical products and information technology services. Overall, the European economy finally dropped by 6.1% in 2020, with certain common patterns in sectoral terms in each of its countries with the exception of some cases such as Romanian agriculture or the construction market in Ireland, among others.