Europe’s Recovery Plan Is Progress
It should have been bigger and more detailed, but it still amounts to a success.
On behalf of the “Frugal Four,” Rutte declares victory.
Photographer: Stephanie Lecocq/AFP via Getty Images
After a marathon four-day summit, Europe’s leaders finally reached agreement on their coronavirus recovery plan. The resulting package isn’t all it should’ve been, and things might yet go wrong as the plan is implemented. Their deal is nonetheless an important step forward.
The scheme strikes a compromise between the governments that wanted a bold new fiscal stimulus directed especially toward the European Union’s worst-hit economies, and others more concerned with maintaining fiscal discipline and avoiding the creation of a so-called transfer union. It allows the European Commission to borrow 750 billion euros and use the proceeds to help struggling economies over the next three years — allocating 390 billion euros in the form of non-refundable grants and the rest as loans.