The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, and the Croatian Minister for the Economy, Darko Horvat, announced at the end of the 'Competitiveness' Council on Thursday 27 February that the ministers would meet again at an informal 'Competitiveness' meeting in Zagreb on 20 March where they would take stock of the impact of coronavirus on the European economy.
The Council's agenda was abruptly changed by the last-minute addition of a new item regarding the epidemic. “I thought it was important to take stock of the economic impact of the coronavirus in Europe. This is why, two days ago, I wrote to the Croatian Presidency (of the EU Council) to put this item on the agenda”, the Commissioner explained to a small group of journalists in the margins of the Council.
“In addition to the health issue, there are initial economic impacts and this is the responsibility of the Competitiveness Council. This is the place to talk about it”, he explained, noting the many sectors that are affected, starting with tourism. It would translate into 2 million overnight stays that would have been cancelled since the beginning of the crisis. Other sectors would also be affected: automotive, electronics, wood and toy sectors.
The Commissioner indicated that the European Commission would monitor the economic impact on a daily basis to collate and consolidate the data. “I have suggested that there is a means of coordinating all the information that will come from each Member State. We will provide this methodology”.
Is there an Extraordinary Council meeting in sight? For his part, the Croatian Minister explained at a press conference that he would like to have information from the various Council configurations regarding the impact of the virus by the time of the informal meeting. An extraordinary formal Competitiveness Council could be held within a month, the two men explained at the press conference.
In the morning, one particular fear was reportedly raised by several ministers in camera, that of the possible duration of the epidemic—which for the moment remains unknown—even though the number of infections seems to have peaked in China. The controversial idea of establishing borders in the Schengen area seems to be gradually being abandoned for the time being (see other news). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens and Agathe Cherki)