Brief on COVID-19: Eurozone in Agreement over the first COVID19-Response

In his brief, Vít Havelka writes about the Eurozone ministers first agreement on the response against the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

After several Eurogroup meetings, the finance ministers of the EU19 finally managed to agree on their first COVID-19-crisis response. They sign up to a package worth of 540 billion €, consisting of 200 billion € loans from the European Investment Bank, 240 billion € from the European Stability Mechanism, and 100 billion € kurzarbeit package proposed by the European Commission. The coronabonds fiercely wanted by Italy, Spain and Portugal have not been approved, leaving the discussion to EU leaders who are due to convene on the 24th April.

In any case, we can expect that the discussion over the EU´s economic response to COVID-19 crises will continue. The current agreement buys the member states precious time to come up with a bold and long-term solution. The Eurogroup declaration mentions a“recovery fund” without specifying its features, and more discussion will surely be concentrated on the post-2020 MFF. It is likely that we will see many more disputes, yet it is to be seen whether they will be damaging to the European project as such. Based on the previous and even the current crisis, it is more likely that the European leaders will be able to reach a mutually beneficial solution that will ensure the continuation of the EU.

You can read the full brief using the PDF button on the right side.

Vít Havelka
Senior Research Fellow

Expertise: EU institutional relations with member states, europeisation, transformation role of EU

EUROPEUM COVID-19
Publications, events and other activities concerning the pandemic and its consequences