The Commission has adopted a proposal for a €3 billion macro-financial assistance (MFA) package to ten enlargement and neighbourhood partners to help them to limit the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The proposal comes on top of the ‘Team Europe' strategy, the EU's robust and targeted response to support partner countries' efforts in tackling the coronavirus pandemic. It represents an important demonstration of the EU's solidarity with these countries at a time of unprecedented crisis. The proposal, following a...

April 22, 2020 | The Commission is taking swift action and proposes additional exceptional measures to further support agricultural and food markets most affected. The EU agri-food sector is showing resilience in these unprecedented times, following the outbreak of the coronavirus. Still, some markets have been hit hard by the consequences of this public health crisis. Today's package includes measures for private storage aid (PSA) in the dairy and meat sectors, the authorisation of self-organisation market measures by operators in hard hit sectors and flexibility in fruits...

April 19, 2020 | Blog post by EU High Representative Josep Borrell It is now more than a month that the corona virus has Europe in its grip. While every day we work flat out to address the crisis in all its aspects, it is good to step back and reflect on what living with COVID19 means, for our daily lives, for Europe, for the wider world and how it will affect our society. "These are testing times. We need to...

April 16, 2020 | The OECD and member countries that provide foreign aid are exploring how they can work to help the most vulnerable countries to weather the Covid-19 crisis, as new data showed a rise in Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2019, particularly to the poorest countries. ODA from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) totalled USD 152.8 billion in 2019, a rise of 1.4% in real terms from 2018, according to preliminary data collected from official development...

• U lags the US in digitalisation • Digital businesses outperform non-digital ones in growth and job creation In the fight against the Coronavirus, digital technology is playing an unprecedented role in the maintenance of daily life and economic and social activities, as well as in the recovery of industry and business. The Coronavirus pandemic is becoming a tipping point for digitalisation – the dawn of a new era – by accelerating the maturity of digital technology: what was once a...

15 April, 2020 | • ECB supports the swift action taken by euro area macroprudential authorities to address the financial sector impact of the coronavirus outbreak by releasing or reducing capital buffers • Macroprudential measures will free up more than €20 billion of bank capital to absorb losses and support lending • Measures complement and reinforce microprudential measures taken by ECB The European Central Bank (ECB) supports the measures taken by euro area macroprudential authorities to address the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19)...

April 15, 2020 | Blog post by Nicolas Véron, with prior publication by PIIE and Bruegel. The new Fed rule is a material breach of Basel III, a new development as the US had hitherto been the accord’s main champion. This action undermines the global order without being ostensibly justified by narrower considerations of US national interest. The financial shock surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the US Federal Reserve to temporarily loosen an important capital-to-asset ratio requirement for American banks....

April 8, 2020 | Today, the Commission is launching ESCALAR, a new investment approach, developed together with the European Investment Fund (EIF), that will support venture capital and growth financing for promising companies, enabling them to scale up in Europe and help reinforce Europe’s economic and technological sovereignty. It will provide up to €300 million aiming to increase the investment capacity of venture capital and private equity funds, triggering investments of up to €1.2 billion, or four times the original...