Euobserver.com

The Flemish government has blocked the signature of a letter from 12 member states reaffirming Europe's commitment to the Green Deal - despite the coronavirus.

The EU's next long-term budget could be used to leverage €1.5 trillion in total joint spending, if states temporarily loosened rules on how much EU institutions can borrow on capital markets, EU budget commissioner Johannes Hahn said in the FT on Thursday. "This is real firepower," he said, referring to EU plans to help private firms and state treasuries hit by the crisis, as well fortifying resistance to future pandemics.

The EU should lift export restrictions on anti-virus medical equipment to Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia, their foreign ministers said in a letter to EU foreign service chief Josep Borrell, dated Tuesday. Exempting them would "send a strong signal to our citizens that we are all together in this as Europeans," they said. Meanwhile, an EU-Western Balkans summit due in Zagreb in May will now be held in June.

Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, warned on Thursday that he will have to ask to extend the state of emergency two more weeks when the current deadline for the lockdown ends (26 April). "Within 15 days, I will have to do this again, because we will not have ended the pandemic," he said. The opposition threatened to stop supporting further extensions to the lockdown, which was imposed on 14 March.

It is the biggest-ever EU financial envelope, but more will be needed to kickstart Europe's economy.

It is still very likely that Europe will face a new deadly spread of the virus next autumn or winter. Until a reliable vaccine and cure are in place, we all have to live in this new reality.

The coronavirus pandemic will turn global economic growth "sharply negative" in 2020, triggering the worst crisis since the 1930s great depression, with only a partial recovery seen in 2021, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday. Georgieva said governments had already taken fiscal stimulus measures of $8 trillion, but more would be needed. She said the crisis would hit emerging markets and developing countries hardest, Reuters reported.

German economy minister Peter Altmaier said Thursday he expected EU finance ministers meeting later in the day to make progress towards agreeing the €500bn coronavirus rescue package. Talks earlier in the week failed. "I have confidence that [German finance minister] Olaf Scholz, with his colleague [French finance minister] Bruno Le Maire, can push this forward today and we are all working on that together," he said.

Italian premier Giuseppe Conte said Thursday that the EU's failure to agree on a recovery plan for after the pandemic risks the existence of the bloc. "It's a big challenge to the existence of Europe," Conte said. "If Europe fails to come up with a monetary and financial policy adequate for the biggest challenge since World War Two, not only Italians but European citizens will be deeply disappointed," he added.

The EU's Green Deal, a flagship project on CO2-neutrality, could be blocked by Flanders, a Belgian region, on grounds it did not address the pandemic-related economic crisis. "Flanders cannot give its agreement to the signature," Zuhal Demir, the regional climate minister from the nationalist NVA party, said on Wednesday. Belgium is a federation of three entities, including also Wallonia and Brussels. The Green Deal needs EU unanimity to go ahead.

Poland must urgently halt the work of a new judicial disciplinary board to prevent "irreparable harm" to rule of law in Europe, an EU court has said.

The European Commission on Wednesday launched a consultation for the updated sustainable finance strategy - one of the pillars of the Green Deal. This strategy, which is expected in the third quarter of 2020, aims to increase sustainable investment and integrate environmental risks into the financial system. The commissioner for EU's economy, Valdis Dombrovskis, said that this strategy is "essential to mobilising much-needed capital" to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

EU Parliament president David Sassoli on Wednesday said the parliament's buildings will be available for the most vulnerable homeless people and its kitchens every day will distribute 1,000 meals to health workers to help them in their work. Sassoli added that it will be available in the parliament's buildings in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg.

The EU has set aside €15.6bn to help fight coronavirus in developing regions around the world. "The impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the most fragile countries, migrants and the most vulnerable people is likely to be dramatic," EU crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarčič said. Some €3.25bn will go to Africa to pay for medical and sanitation projects, amid EU fears the virus could rebound from there back to Europe.

The EU's CO2 emissions have dropped by 58 percent since the virus lockdowns began, French consultancy Sia Partners has noted. Emissions from cars and motorbikes fell 88 percent, while industry (60%) and the energy sector (40%) fell less steeply, and household emissions rose (29%). "Once the confinement is finished, some sectors will restart right away and others will not," Sia Partners' Charlotte de Lorgeril told British newspaper the Financial Times.

Non-essential travel across the EU's common border ought to be restricted until 15 May, the European Commission has proposed to member states. "We shouldn't yet let the door open whilst we're securing our house," migration commissioner Margaritis Schinas said. Air traffic, road, railway, and ferry crossings into the EU have "been almost reduced to zero" since mid-March, with remaining journeys "limited to cargo transport and repatriation," the commission said.

The pandemic may push a half billion people into poverty globally, says international aid agency Oxfam. In a briefing paper, it says the number of people living in poverty could increase between 6.2 million and 13.1 million in Europe and Central Asia alone. To stem poverty in the EU, it recommends the mutalisation of debt, 'helicopter money' from the European Central Bank, an EU solidarity wealth tax, among other ideas.

The rise in support for mainstream parties has been paired with stagnation or decline for far-right populist parties and figures - the AfD has dropped to 10 percent in Germany and Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini are treading water.

Contested version of events cloud the shock resignation of Mauro Ferrari as president of the European Research Council. Ferrari dramatically tendered his resignation on 7 April. But his colleagues overseeing the council wanted him gone already by late March.

The European Commission dropped plans to unveil a "roadmap" to end restrictive measures imposed by member states. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization warned countries not to lift restrictions prematurely.