Ahead of video-conferences between economic and finance ministers today and the Eurogroup tomorrow to prepare a European Council meeting scheduled for later this week, the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament call on EU leaders to step up their crisis response to a real European fiscal stimulus.

Iratxe García, S&D Group leader, said:

“Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures: we call on European leaders to issue corona-bonds and activate the European Stability Mechanism. As Europe is facing its biggest challenge since the Second World War, we as Europeans must stand together in solidarity. All European countries will be massively affected by the expected economic downturn and only together will we be able to overcome this crisis.

“So far, member states have largely acted on their own, setting-up much needed credit-lines for companies and putting in place crucial partial unemployment schemes. Now, the time has come to move beyond credits and organise a massive European fiscal stimulus, capable of ensuring our economies will recover quickly. The only effective way of organising a stimulus of this scale is through the EU. The EU must now open the way for the use of the European Stability Mechanism’s overall lending capacity and for the immediate launch of corona-bonds, to ensure the firepower needed to avert a new recession. This can be achieved either by using its current precautionary lines or with an additional credit line designed for this crisis. Without imposing any conditionalities or creating new Troikas, it is time to put the ESM at the service of people and not against them.

“After the ECB’s €750 billion pandemic response, it is now up to European leaders to show the same ambition and courage to do whatever it takes to protect people from the economic and social outfall of the corona outbreak.”