Commission welcomes Eurogroup agreement ESM’s Pandemic Crisis Support

The Commission welcomes the Eurogroup’s agreement on the establishment of the Pandemic Crisis Support instrument of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) reached at its videoconference on Friday, 8 May 2020. The instrument will be available to all euro area Member States, for amounts of 2% of the respective Member’s GDP, to support domestic financing of direct and indirect healthcare, cure and prevention-related costs due to the coronavirus crisis. The Eurogroup agreed with the view of the institutions that all ESM Members meet the eligibility requirements to receive support under the Pandemic Crisis Support. It also agreed with the Commission’s intention to apply a streamlined reporting and monitoring framework, limited to the commitments detailed in the Pandemic Response Plan, as outlined in the letter of 7 May of Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni. The Eurogroup also exchanged views on the economic situation of the euro area, based on the Commission’s Spring 2020 Economic Forecast. Commissioner Gentiloni’s statement at the press conference which followed the Eurogroup is available here.