Agreement Eurogroup

After the end of The marathon meeting on Wednesday morning, Mr. Scholz and Le Maire continued their bilateral discussions with each other and with other ministers, and Mr. Macron and Ms. Merkel, although they were far removed from the issue of common debt, contacted other heads of state and government to convince them of the need to reach an agreement on the Eurogroup package. The resumption of the Eurogroup meeting on Thursday was delayed by four hours, while several bilateral discussions continued. But when the meeting finally began, the ministers reached agreement on the package fairly quickly – especially by reshaping their differences on the conditionality of the ESM with ambiguous words and by tabling the overall question of how to finance the considerable amount needed to support the post-COVID recovery. New opportunities for cooperation between the countries opened by the agreement cannot counter its negative effects. The provisions, particularly in the area of cooperation in the field of animal welfare, but also in the field of wildlife, are too weak and too dependent on political will and resources that may be limited. Moreover, if political will and resources are available, such cooperation could already take place outside this trade agreement.

On 26 March, the European Council, the heads of state and government of the European Union, met for the third time in less than three weeks in a video conference to discuss the EU`s response to the COVID pandemic. Meeting a week after the European Central Bank announced a new pandemic emergency procurement programme (PEPP) that will buy up to 750 billion euros of private and public securities this year, two days after the Eurogroup convened the finance ministers of eurozone member states and largely supported the resources of the European Stability Mechanism to help euro area member states in need of assistance. and the day after nine EU heads of state and government approved – in a letter to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the creation of a common EU instrument on debt to find the means necessary to recover from the economic consequences of the pandemic, the Council debated – sometimes inflamed – the Eurogroup`s proposals and proposals from nine heads of state and government for more than five hours. but failed to reach an agreement and invited the Eurogroup to continue its work and submit proposals within two weeks. The differences between the ministers were the same as at the previous eurogroup and European Council meeting two days later. In a letter to Michel after the previous meeting, Centeno said ministers “broadly agreed” that ESM resources should contribute to the coordinated response. There is “broad support” for providing a “Pandemic Crisis Support Safeguard” in accordance with the provisions of the ESM treaty, which builds on the existing credit line framework for improving conditions. In addition, there was a “broad consensus” that pandemic aid is a relevant guarantee for every ESM member affected by the pandemic and that significant resources should be allocated for this purpose, by allocating a reference allocation of about 2% of its GDP to a Member State.

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