Europe needs €1.5 trillion to recover or single market could ‘break in two’ – EU economy commissioner
The European Union urgently requires financial injections to stay afloat and survive the coronavirus epidemic currently ravaging the continent, the European commissioner for economy, Paolo Gentiloni, has warned.
A whopping €1.5 trillion ($ 1.63 trillion) could be needed to “deal with this crisis,” Gentiloni told Der Spiegel ahead of the EU leaders summit on the crisis sparked by the outbreak of Covid-19.
The commissioner for economic and financial affairs said that Europe is going through the “worst crisis” since WWII, which threatens the very existence of the EU as a single economic and political entity. Gentiloni cited an International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast, saying the EU could see an unprecedented 7.5 percent drop in GDP this year. In 2009, during the global financial crisis, the EU’s GDP fell by only 4.4 percent.