The Eurogroup (Eurozone Economy and Finance Ministers) earlier this week agreed upon economic support measures which might be useful for businesses that might need economic assistance.
At the national level, temporary measures have been agreed to, such as fiscal spending for containment and treatment of the disease; liquidity support for firms including transport and tourism facing disruption and liquidity shortages and support for affected workers to avoid employment and income losses.
The Eurogroup also supports actions at the European level such as a €37 billion “Corona Response Investment Initiative” plus €28 billions of structural funds to meet these expenditures; an initiative to mobilise up to €8 billion in working capital lending for 100,000 European firms, backed by the EU budget; and another initiative to catalyse €10 billion in additional investments in SMEs and the enhancement and acceleration of available resources to support liquidity and funding conditions.
Measures are also being worked on to help the economy recover once the COVID-19 crisis has subsided: and those taken in response to the pandemic will be excluded from EU fiscal rules, targets and requirements; and state aid rules will be relaxed using an accelerated decision-making process for their approval.
Read the full statement on the Corona Response Investment Initiative.
For more resources and information on the coronavirus and COVID-19, visit IAAPA's resource center.