EU:s samlade aktioner kopplade till Corona-pandemin, med fokus på ekonomi

EU Finance Chiefs Agree on $590 Billion Virus Rescue Package

April 10, 2020,

Accord reached on second try after acrimony earlier in week

European Union finance ministers agreed on a 540 billion-euro ($590 billion) package of measures to combat the economic fallout of the global coronavirus pandemic. It’s now up to EU leaders to approve the accord, which will require overcoming profound political disagreements.

In an emergency teleconference on Thursday, finance chiefs approved a plan to stave off what’s expected to be a recession of unprecedented size. The deal will lay to rest — at least for now — concerns that the EU was incapable of uniting behind a common strategy when it was most urgently needed.

In a sign of relief, ministers broke out in applause once consensus was struck.

“Today we agreed on three safety nets and a plan for the recovery to ensure we grow together and not apart once the crisis is behind us,” Mario Centeno, the Portuguese finance minister who runs the so-called Eurogroup meetings, told reporters.

The proposal will be officially tabled by the European Commission next week as part of a €1 trillion package to kickstart the bloc’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

An EU diplomat added: “This [bidragen] might help fight the populists in Italy but it is likely to fuel populism in northern, central and eastern Europe.”

Italy - especially Lombardy in the north - has been one of Europe's hardest-hit countries by Covid-19. The pandemic has put Italy's health service under severe strain in terms of staff, equipment and finances.

Sicily's coronavirus co-ordinator and nine other healthcare officials have been arrested suspected of taking bribes from equipment and services contracts, Italian police say.
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The head of Sicily's coronavirus response, Antonio Candela, is now under house arrest while Fabio Damiani, who heads the Trapani's health authority (ASP), is among those in police detention.

Europe has a rescue package. But who's going to pay for its coronavirus recovery?

EU finance ministers have approved €500 billion in stimulus measures designed to cushion the blow to their economies from the coronavirus pandemic,

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to warn that a failure to act would mean "the end of Europe."

Yet little progress was made on how to finance the response.

... key issue, leaving it to be addressed in future

"A perceived lack of solidarity in the worst peacetime crisis in living memory could be dynamite for the longer-term cohesion of the eurozone and the European Union," they wrote after the deal was announced.

EU limits on budget deficits have been relaxed to allow member countries to borrow more, and the European Central Bank has also pumped hundreds of billions into markets to prevent the shock from triggering a new financial crisis.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already hinted that EU states will have to pay twice as much as before into this joint budget. Instead of €150 billion ($161 billion) it will be €300 billion for two or three years. She then wants to leverage this capital stock with loans of €1 trillion.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, commented: “The virus knows no borders. ...

Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, explained: ”As long as the coronavirus threatens lives somewhere, we are not safe.

we are redirecting over €3.8 billion of foreseen funds for the Western Balkans and our immediate neighbours to the East and to the South, to where their real needs are today: for urgent response to the health crisis,

From the overall package of €15.6 billion, €3.25 billion are channelled to Africa,


The EU is securing in total €3.07 billion for the whole neighbourhood – €2.1 billion for the South and €962 million for the Eastern Partner countries – and €800 million for the Western Balkans and Turkey.

In addition, the overall package includes another €1.42 billion in guarantees for Africa and the neighbourhood from the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD).

The EU will support Asia and the Pacific with €1.22 billion, another €291 million will go for the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific region, €918 million to support our partners in Latin America and the Caribbean and €111 million to support Overseas Countries and Territories.

€502 million for Emergency response actions focus amongst others, on:

Providing immediate support to the Response Plans of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations, as well as to the appeal of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to boost emergency preparedness and response in countries with weaker health systems and those dealing with humanitarian crises;
Providing immediate humanitarian support in affected countries, in particular in health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and logistics;
Supporting increased production in Europe of personal protective equipment and medical devices to meet urgent needs in Europe and in partner countries;
Organising the supply of in-kind assistance to affected countries through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism;
Providing guarantee and liquidity provisions to local banks via International Financial Institutions and European Development Finance Institutions, supported by the European Fund for Sustainable Development;
Supporting global efforts to combat export restrictions and ensure supply chains remain intact, notably for essential medical supplies and pharmaceuticals;
Associating the Western Balkans to EU initiatives such as the Joint Procurement Agreement for medical equipment and the European rapid alert system for communicable diseases. Countries negotiating their accession can also apply for the EU Solidarity Fund.


€2.8 billion to support research, health and water systems. The EU is, amongst others:

Supporting partner countries in building resilient, responsive health and social protection systems;
Supporting communication and awareness efforts on basic protective measures and hygiene advice to prevent the spread;
Allowing some EU funding from global health initiatives like the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) and the Global Financial Facility to be used to respond to the coronavirus, while ensuring continuation of vital health programmes;
Supporting further research on diagnostics, treatment and prevention, and once a vaccine is available, fast-tracking approval and subsidizing vaccines and their delivery in vulnerable countries;
Supporting experts training, epidemiological surveillance and strengthening regional health organisations in Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean and Asia and the Pacific;
Welcoming candidate countries in the Western Balkans to the EU's Health Security Committee and reflecting how best to associate potential candidates;
Supporting equal access to health systems for migrants, refugees and host communities.


€12.28 billion to address the economic and social consequences. The EU is amongst other:

Providing direct budget support and concessional financing for partner countries to adopt reforms for socio-economic development and poverty reduction, and measures to protect workers during the crisis;
Mobilising macro-financial assistance for Western Balkan and neighbouring countries with the International Monetary Fund (IMF);
Supporting the private sector, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the self-employed, via guarantees, liquidity provisions and technical assistance and further reorient guarantees from the European Fund for Sustainable Development towards short-term risk-sharing on loans;
Providing public sector loans from the European Investment Bank, notably for healthcare equipment and supplies;
Working with international organizations and European companies to build strong and resilient value chains in strategic sectors and ensure labour rights and corporate social responsibility;
Promoting forms of debt relief considered by the IMF in affected countries.

The Eurogroup’s new safeguards aim to mitigate the economic fallout from the pandemic by protecting workers, keeping companies afloat and protecting state coffers from ruin.

Rome and Madrid had hoped the severity of the health and economic crisis would open the door to pooling EU debt, which could finance the bloc’s recovery and keep borrowing costs down. Both countries’ prime ministers have warned that the European project is at stake without this level of solidarity.

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Eurobonds is a thing I wasn’t OK with, I am not OK with and I will never be OK with," Dutch Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra said

Hoekstra isn’t alone. He has the backing of Germany and many Northern European countries, such as Finland.

But corona bonds disappeared in the statement’s linguistic ambiguity. The text merely referred to a recovery fund that could provide money to countries through the EU budget to help kickstart the bloc’s economy.

The fund could use “innovative financial instruments” to raise money, the statement said, with no mention of its potential size or when it would come.

That was enough for Italy’s finance minister, who quickly grabbed his phone to tweet his understanding of the text after the Eurogroup meeting between ministers ended at around 10 p.m.

“European bonds are on the table,” Roberto Gualtieri wrote on Twitter. “We are delivering an ambitious proposal to the European Council. We will fight to make it happen

The deal allows the European Investment Bank to set up a fund of €200 billion in loans for cash-strapped companies across the bloc. The European Commission’s temporary €100 billion jobless reinsurance plan also got the green light and aims to protect workers and help with some health-related issues.

Finally, any eurozone country will also be able to draw on a credit line worth 2 percent of its economic output from the eurozone’s bailout arm — as long as the money is used for health care-related costs.

The €240 billion in credit lines will only be available to handle the crisis and should be accessible within two weeks. No other conditions apply.

EU announces financial 'firepower' of 1.85 trillion with 750 billion for COVID recovery

The big day has arrived the European Commission has laid out its vision for post-pandemic recovery funds, and it is worth 1.85 trillion euros. The plan relies on both the long-term EU budget (2021-27) and a special recovery fund.

Next Generation EU of €750 billion as well as targeted reinforcements to the long-term EU budget for 2021-2027 will bring the total financial firepower of the EU budget to €1.85 trillion

The money would be divided up into 500 billion euros given to EU countries as grants, the remaining 250 billion euros would be available as loans.

MEPs have called for it to be scaled up to 2 trillion euros

The kick-off date for funding is set to be January 1 2021, although the EU has already set aside funding in the current budget to help with coronavirus fallout.

"Seventy-five years ago we stopped Hitler. Who will stop Angela Merkel? She has fulfilled Hitler's dream! To control Europe."

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But for Germany in particular, even this first step already amounts to a dramatic change. A country that has consistently rejected any notion of a European “transfer union” or “mutualized borrowing” is now pushing for a soft and temporary form of both.

Chancellor Angela Merkel shattered a long-standing German taboo last week when she unexpectedly unveiled a plan to fund the EU's coronavirus recovery through shared debt.