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The European Commission on Wednesday told governments to focus on safeguarding the health of people and the planet after abandoning its fiscal rulebook so states can combat COVID-19’s economic fallout.
"The Coronavirus has hit us like an asteroid and left a crater-shaped hole in the European economy,” Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement. “For this immediate phase, our focus is on investing in public health and protecting jobs and companies.”
Dombrovskis’ calls come as part of the Commission’s European Semester, which is designed to enforce the bloc’s budget rules and coordinate economic policies in the EU.
But this year’s different due to the pandemic, which has forced governments to lock down their economies to stop the virus from spreading.
Brussels already waived its deficit rules and released constraints on state aid, giving states free rein to borrow and pump potentially trillions of euros into their economies to prevent mass unemployment and bankruptcy.