The activation at the end of March of the Stability and Growth Pact's general escape clause to open the budgetary floodgates and fight the Covid-19 pandemic was necessary, but this clause should provide for a review date, for example "in spring 2021" said the European Fiscal Board in its assessment of the appropriate fiscal position for the euro area in 2021, which it published on Wednesday 1 July.
In the course of 2021, the economic recovery should be robust enough to at least start...