How and to which extent has the pandemics affected cities differently than states and regions? Was there a distinct urban way of combating Covid-19? Have the existing laws and regulations helped or hampered cities’ work? How has the interplay between various levels of governance evolved during the pandemics? These are the issues Professor Jan Andrzej Zielonka and his team involved in the project 'Cities in the evolving European governance: the pandemic case' at Ca'Foscari University in Venice are reflecting on. The project examines the role of cities in performing key public functions in the domain of health, democracy and global networking. In the first part of this project we will focus on the current pandemic. Covid-19 has affected densely populated cities in a special way. Some of the cities have become symbols of the fight against the pandemics. Although health issues are chiefly a matter of national and regional government, the pandemics showed that the local municipal level (and the European level) are also important. States have indeed raised their voice, but their ability to control the spread of the virus and economic fallouts of the pandemics proved modest at best. The pandemic has indeed showed the need for public authority, but this authority was partly at the state level, partly at the local level and partly at the international one. In many cases, states have proved to be the weakest link in this complex network of governance and have acted in selfish, crude and clumsy ways. Transnational and local actors proved not only needed to combat the pandemics, but they often managed to offer more innovative and participatory solutions to the health crisis than was the case with states. In short, the multi-level governance in Europe has not fell victims of COVID-19; in fact, the pandemic has underlined its importance and vitality.