The President of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, said on Monday, 18 January that the recovery plans that the Member States are invited to submit to the European Commission by the end of April must strike a “balance” between short-term fiscal support and the identification of structural reforms to lay the foundations for sustainable growth after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Eurozone Finance Ministers discussed the ‘eurozone’ dimension of the Next Generation EU European Recovery Plan and the Ecofin Council will continue these discussions in the EU-27 on Tuesday (see EUROPE 12636/16). Their Spanish counterpart, Nadia Calviño, presented the broad outlines of the Spanish plan.
The European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, considered that the macroeconomic imbalances, already observed before the pandemic, are likely to increase with the crisis in the eurozone and the internal market. This is one of the reasons why the European Recovery Plan was drawn up, he noted.
After submitting the national reform plans, the Commission has 2 months to assess them, after which the EU Council will have 1 month to approve them. “This timetable is tight”, but it will be possible to keep to it because we are already in advanced preparatory discussions with several countries, Mr Gentiloni said. He concurred with Mr Donohoe on the importance of striking a balance between fiscal support and structural reforms that take into account country-specific socio-economic policy recommendations. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)