What’s next for Europe’s economic recovery plan

After the Eurogroup deal, there’s a lot left to resolve.

 
EU leaders will meet via videoconference April 23 to consider a €540 billion package of initiatives that their finance ministers agreed on Thursday to prevent the pandemic from cratering the bloc’s economy.

They’ll have plenty to discuss.

“This response contains bold and ambitious proposals that would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago,” Eurogroup President Mário Centeno, who chaired ministers’ online talks, said after over three days of meetings. “I’m very proud to be president at this very historic moment.”

But many questions remain about the Eurogroup proposals. Here’s POLITICO’s rundown.

 
What was agreed? 

Under the ministers’ deal, any eurozone country will be able to draw on a credit line from the EU’s bailout arm worth 2 percent of its annual economic output, as long as the money is used for health care costs.

Ministers also signed off on a European Investment Bank fund that can guarantee €200 billion of loans to cash-strapped EU companies, and they agreed to a temporary €100 billion unemployment reinsurance plan.

But the Eurogroup’s plan made no reference to corona bonds — an Italian-led plan to pool EU debt and use the funds to pay for the economic recovery.

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Πηγή: politico.eu