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EU finance chiefs agree on €540 billion virus rescue package

EU finance chiefs agree on €540 billion virus rescue package

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European Union finance ministers agreed on a €540 billion ($590 billion) package of measures to combat the economic fallout of the global pandemic.
In an emergency teleconference on Thursday, they approved a plan to stave off what’s expected to be a recession of unprecedented size, drawing a round of applause from the participating officials.
It includes a joint employment insurance fund worth €100 billion, a European Investment Bank instrument intended to supply €200 billion of liquidity to companies, as well as credit lines of up to €240 billion from the European Stability Mechanism — the euro area’s bailout fund — to backstop states as they go on a spending spree to help economies back on their feet.
The deal will lay to rest some concerns that the bloc was incapable of uniting behind a common strategy when it was most urgently needed. It all still needs to be signed off by leaders as early as next week and tensions persist.
COVID-19 has overwhelmed Europe, with the continent suffering more than 65 percent of the worldwide deaths attributable to the virus. The scale of the damage shines a spotlight on the vulnerabilities of a union that in the past decade has been rattled by the Greek debt crisis, an influx of refugees and then Brexit.
EU leaders agreed last month that the bloc’s coronavirus economic recovery plan should be consistent with the “green transition,” but did not pledge specific measures.
The 10 countries want to see increased investment to support renewable energy, sustainable transport, energy efficiency and other steps to back the EU Green Deal’s goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“The Green Deal constitutes a new growth strategy for the EU, which is able to deliver on the twin benefits of stimulating economies and creating jobs while accelerating the green transition in a cost efficient way,” the letter said.
It encouraged countries to steer away from short-term solutions in response to the pandemic “that risk locking the EU in a fossil fuel economy for decades to come.”

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