“The European recovery plan can all the more remain in history if it has been implemented in an energetic and methodical manner”

Tribune. The recovery plan for Europe (called ” Next Generation EU ”) Could be adopted in July 2021, albeit in pain, because the twenty-seven member states of the European Union (EU) all considered that it was in their interest that aid financed by a loan funds can be paid in order to stem the crisis linked to the coronavirus.

It was then a question of sending a macroeconomic signal to the States, through an exceptional contribution equivalent to around 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the EU over three years, and which complements the interventions of the European Central Bank. (ECB) and other community and national subsidies. Just as it was a question of sending a signal of political solidarity to citizens and investors, echoing the will of Europeans to preserve the cohesion of the EU, the “internal market”, by again taking note of their economic interdependence.

This interdependence explains why the benefits of the European recovery plan must be evaluated on a transnational basis, and not only with regard to the aid obtained by such and such a country (40 billion euros for France). If partners as important as Italy and Spain had not had the assurance of receiving massive aid from the EU, their economic and financial collapse would indeed have had very negative consequences in France, beyond purely accounting and shopkeeper considerations.

It is permissible to point out that France could have gone into debt on its own, undoubtedly at a slightly lower cost – even if this would have weighed on its public debt, which is now close to 120% of GDP … But we cannot forget that our Italian neighbor, even more heavily indebted, would have had many more difficulties in obtaining financing on the markets – hence the precious contribution of “Next Generation EU” beyond the Alps and, by extension, on this side here too.

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The financial solidarity embodied by “Next Generation EU” also has a temporal dimension: if all the grants and loans planned (which could go up to 750 billion euros) are intended to be disbursed to support the end of the crisis , between 2021 and 2023, their reimbursement will be spread over thirty years, until… 2058.

This time lag is also constitutive of an immediate and welcome financial contribution, in a particularly critical period: France will thus receive 40 billion in three years, whereas it will only have to contribute in the medium and long term to the reimbursement. the loan that enabled the launch of the EU recovery plan.

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