Coronavirus: EC moots 300 bn recovery fund
14:22, 24 April 2020
ROME. KAZINFORM The European Commission on Thursday proposed a 300 billion euro Recovery Fund for the coronavirus emergency to be added to the EU's 2021-2027 budget, ahead of Thursday's EU summit on the economic response to the crisis.
The document contains a package of measures to «mobilize» at least two trillion euros for the crisis recovery, ANSA reports.
Some 320 billion euros of resources would be obtained by issuing European bonds on the financial markets, half of which to devote to loans and the other half to ad hoc programmes, within the framework of the four-year EU budget, for the worst affected countries like Italy.
The instrument will be temporary and targeted to specific needs, the EC said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said these are «extraordinary times» and without solidarity Europe «does not exist».
She said EU treaties would have to be modified to provide guarantees for European debt.