Coronavirus crisis: “Commission will use all the tools at its disposal to make sure the European economy weathers the storm”

10 March 2020

The Commission received a mandate to further step up its response to the Coronavirus, or COVID-19 outbreak, on all fronts and coordinate Member State actions.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said [...]On the economic front:

First and foremost, we must act at the macro-economic level. We will use all the tools at our disposal to make sure the European economy weathers this storm. This requires coordination between Member States, the Commission and the ECB. I am comforted that leaders have called for such a coordinated strategy.

The Commission will play its full part with no delay. I am working on the following measures to support Member States in their efforts:

• We will make sure that state aid can flow to companies that need it;
• Secondly, we will make full use of the flexibility which exists in the Stability and Growth Pact;

I will come with concrete ideas before the Eurogroup on Monday. So on both these fronts, we will clarify the rules of the game for Member States very quickly.

Finally, I will bring forward a “Corona Response Investment Initiative” directed at

• the health care systems,
• SMEs,
• labour markets
• and other vulnerable parts of our economies.

The investment will be sizable and reach €25 billion quickly. To realise this, I will propose to Council and Parliament this week to release €7.5 billion of investment liquidity. 

Full remarks

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