EU and Covid-19 : time to think outside the box

Abstract

If European leaders are to save the EU economy when they meet on April 23rd, they need to think outside the box. The Eurogroup’s decisions on April 9th were at the same time a necessary and overdue collective EU response, as well as a welcome but flawed and incomplete compromise. The Eurogroup decisions relate to financing the crisis management and response, not financing the recovery. While the Eurogroup agreed to work on establishing a Recovery Fund, details are still missing and Eurobonds seem excluded.