The Netherlands links the recovery phase after the virus to the European budget

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday that the economic measures package approved by the Eurogroup "prevents serious financial problems" and assured that the "joint strategy before the recovery phase" after the coronavirus crisis should be linked to the European budget.

"The impact of the coronavirus throughout the EU is enormous, also economically. The Eurogroup package prevents acute financial problems. Based on the proposals of the European Commission, we will work on a joint constructive strategy for the recovery phase, linked to the multi-annual budget ", explained Rutte, after finalizing the telematic European Council this Thursday.

To the emergency fund of the European Stability Mechanism and the more than 750,000 million euros offered by the European Central Bank (ECB), a new aid package approved by the leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union is added this Thursday to make facing the consequences of the current health emergency.

But some European leaders, including the Netherlands, have asked the European Commission (EC) for an analysis of what each of the European economies affected by the Covid-19 crisis needs, before beginning to outline a plan to relaunch the economy of the community bloc and to negotiate its proposal for a reconstruction fund.

"This is already a lot of money, I would be very surprised if we spent all this in the rest of the year. For me, it is difficult to understand why we need more money in the coming months. Therefore, we need to wait for the EC, which will be able to give more details on all this, "stressed the prime minister at a press conference after the European Council.

Rutte insisted that he wants to know "where we are, in terms of sectors, regions, etc." and, based on that, decide if it is necessary "to resort to recovery instruments" because, he considered, "it does not make sense to talk about numbers if not You know "how the country is, and applauded that the President of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, has agreed to" make an analysis "of the situation.

According to the Dutch prime minister, the time Von der Leyen takes to do his research will also help member states to think of alternatives, because the ECB and the EU itself "have already put billions of euros on the table for there is no acute financial problem "and, at the moment, there are no" major problems "in the financial markets to borrow.

"We also have to be aware that, as long as there is no vaccine, the virus can resurface. How does the economy react to that?" Said the head of the Dutch government, who underlines that it is "more prudent to work in phases", now that "the misunderstandings" led by the Netherlands with the countries of Southern Europe have been cleared up.