The European Union as a key player to fight COVID-19 and gaining strength in world politics Francisco Aldecoa Luzárraga General considerations Since the last article that I published a year and a half ago in the previous edition of the State of the EU, the role of the European Union in the world has been rein­forced as a consequence of actions that were taken to fight coronavirus and that has had an effect on new in­ternational leadership. This is due to the new political cycle that came about as a consequence of the May 2019 elections where the European Union bolstered both its original and practis­ing legitimacy, setting out its main international goal as reinforcement of the European Union’s role in the world. I will subsequently analyse the relevance of the spread of coronavirus throughout the world, still completely out of control. This is working as a catalyst for the EU’s fed­eral advancement as I will explain in point four. Below, I will analyse the international response to COVID-19 that has given the European Union new lead­ership as an international player and thereby develops the concept of strategic autonomy and its extension dur­ing coronavirus times. I shall finish with the conclusion that is the title of this article. It is important to highlight the relevance of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union on 31 st January this year, one month before the pandemic was declared, so that the EU might be able to give an in-depth unitary response by means of the Recovery Plan and, in turn, with important inter­national consequences in the fight against COVID-19. These decisions would have been impossible if the United Kingdom was still a member of the EU. The new political cycle as a consequence of the elections on 23rd-26th May 2019 and bolstering the“EU’s role in the world”. Over the last four years, the European Union’s situation has been improving substantially and progressively, par­ticularly since the Brexit referendum on 23 rd June 2016, as this brought about cohesion among Member States, institutions and citizens, as reflected in successive 95