27 May saw several major announcements by the European Commission, including the European coronavirus recovery plan – dubbed “New Generation Europe” – and a new proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework (the EU’s budget, MFF).
“New Generation Europe” is worth €750bn and built on three pillars:
- Supporting Member States to Recover;
- Kick-starting the economy by incentivising private investment;
- Learning lessons from the new crisis.
According to the proposal, the Commission would borrow €750bn on the financial markets – €250bn will be allocated as loans, and €500bn as grants. The grants pick up on the Franco-German proposal of 19 May that argued that the Commission should be allowed to borrow unprecedented amounts of money on the markets and make it available to EU Member States to support their recovery.
COVID-19 update 23 – 26-29/05/2020