EU’s €5bn plan to ease the financial pain of Brexit
IRELAND could benefit from a share of a new €5bn EU fund to ease the effects of Brexit.
The proposed fund was outlined by European Council president Charles Michel and aims to ease disruption to EU member states from next year.
The announcement came as Michel outlined planned concessions to EU countries over their long-term budget and economic stimulus plans, in a bid to bridge gaps before national leaders meet this coming week to discuss how to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
With EU economies in freefall, Michel will chair the first face-to-face talks of the 27 EU heads since lockdown and feuds over how to respond to the coronavirus divided the bloc.
“The Covid-19 crisis presents Europe with a challenge of historic proportions,” Michel said. “We are slowly exiting the acute health crisis... the emphasis is now shifting to mitigating the socio-economic damage.”
Hoping to overcome differences over how to revive economic growth between the wealthy, thrifty north and high-debt south, hit harder by Covid-19, he proposed a smaller joint EU budget for 2021-27. That may help make the mass stimulus scheme more palatable to the more frugal nations in the bloc.