Covid-19 recovery fund must be embedded in EU long-term budget

13 May 2020 01:33 PM

MEPs discuss plans to reboot Europe’s economy in light of Covid-19 today and vote on a resolution later in the week. Learn more in our interview.

The coronavirus outbreak is testing the EU in ways that would have been unthinkable only months ago. Along with the human cost of lives lost, the hit to the EU economy has been severe. Ahead of a vote on plans to revise the EU's post-2020 budget, the chair of Parliament’s budget committee Johan Van Overtveldt warned the economic recovery would be “slow and gradual” and that the prediction of a 7.5% decline in economic activity this year is a “mild forecast”.

EU response to the coronavirus

In an interview on Parliament’s Facebook page, the Belgian ECR member noted there is still a great deal of incertitude: “Not even in wartime has economic life come to a halt with such suddenness. There is so much uncertainty: will there be a relapse? Will there be a second round of lockdowns? What will the mood of investors and consumers be?”

Since the outset, the EU has been mobilising all means available to help member states reinforce their health sectors and mitigate the socio-economic impact of the virus. Parliament has also called for a larges-cale recovery package to support Europe’s economy after the crisis. Van Overtveldt stressed that this must be embedded in the EU's long-term budget: “The recovery fund should be substantial but it should also be part of the next [ budget], for 2021-2027 and not something apart.”

Need for contingency plans

With the EU's current long-term budget set to end in December, Van Overtveldt underlined the importance of a contingency plan in case of failure to reach agreement on the post-2020 budget in time: “When we get into June, time becomes short to get the [budget] approved and up and running in time and a discontinuity of current EU programmes would be very bad for citizens and for the reputation and political coherence of the EU.”

The budget committee chair urged other EU institutions to take note of Parliament’s stance: “The consent of Parliament has to be obtained and that surely is much less a sure thing than it was with the outgoing [long-term budget], so the Commission and Council should take notice of what the Parliament is aiming for. In the interest of citizens, Parliament will ensure that the [long-term budget] and recovery fund are the best possible responses to the severe crisis we see now and that will have consequences for many years.”