This recovery fund had been adopted to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. However, Germany does not want to hear of a new pooling of debt between the 27.
The German Minister of Finance said he was open to an adaptation, in the light of the war in Ukraine, of the priorities of the European recovery plan adopted by the European Union to deal with the covid-19 crisis. “I am open to a new prioritization of available funds” within the recovery plan in a context that “changed“says Christian Lindner in an interview to be published on Sunday in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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On the contrary, the minister rejects the idea of a new pooling of European funds to deal with the economic repercussions of the war in Ukraine, but also with defense spending that most countries want to increase. “We don’t need new mutual funds with common debts“, pleads the minister, also president of the German liberal party FDP and as such a supporter of rigorous budgetary policies. “Investments in infrastructure, energy and competitiveness are needed“, argued the German minister, but”no more government consumer spending or postponement of reforms“.
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The discussion in Europe on an extension of the unprecedented European Fund created to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic has emerged within the EU due to the already visible repercussions of the war in Ukraine, which is reflected in a surge in the inflation and a slowdown in growth. In the wake of the pandemic, the 27 European Heads of State and Government adopted in 2020 the largest recovery package ever decided in the European Union, with a total amount of around 800 billion euros. euros for the reconstruction of post-Covid Europe. This plan must be financed through loans shared between European countries, a first.
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