German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has expressed confidence that the Eurogroup an informal association of eurozone finance ministers would agree on the criteria of giving loans via the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) at a meeting being held on Friday
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th May, 2020) German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has expressed confidence that the Eurogroup an informal association of eurozone finance ministers would agree on the criteria of giving loans via the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) at a meeting being held on Friday.
The Eurogroup is meeting to exchange views on the economic situation in the eurozone based on the European Commission's spring forecast, as well as discuss the group's efforts to fight the COVID-19 crisis.
"We had very intensive and constructive discussions, and I am sure that today, the Eurogroup will decide on the criteria by which each country in Europe will be able to request from the stabilization mechanism ... a credit of up to two percent of GDP," Scholz said on Friday.
The minister added that this would be "an important contribution ... to ensuring the health of citizens and stabilize the economy."
On April 9, Eurogroup finance ministers agreed on a 540 billion euros package of measures to ensure recovery of the EU economy from the coronavirus pandemic, which included a new European Investment Bank program to support enterprises (200 billion euros), the SURE mechanism of the European Commission to fight unemployment (100 billion euros), and a loan instrument worth 240 billion euros from the ESM.
