Gualtieri defends Recovery plan. Even Hungary among the penalty takers

The battle in Europe over the Recovery Fund is rekindled at Ecofin.

"Italy supports an ambitious and future-oriented recovery plan. The Commission proposal is a balanced compromise and should not be reduced. Now working on investments and reforms". Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri writes on twitter.

Strong link between the structural reforms requested by the EU and a recovery that contributes to the green and digital transition, capacity and distribution of the Recovery fund based on the real impact of the coronavirus crisis, loans with clear maturities and no subsidies, skeptical about increasing the ceiling of own resources: this is the position of the Dutch government, sent to its Parliament, on the EU Commission proposal on the Recovery plan.

"The overall package is not acceptable to us in terms of volume, but also in terms of content": so the Austrian Finance Minister, Gernot Bluemel, speaking of the Recovery Fund proposed by the EU Commission, in the margins of Ecofin. "Today we have to know how and by whom the debt" foreseen with "grants" will be repaid, "said Bluemel, who believes the choice to grant mainly aid" a definitely wrong assessment "by Brussels.

"In its current form, the Recovery Fund is unfair to Hungary because it was basically tailor-made to help southern Member States": so the Hungarian finance minister, Mihaly Varga, in a video posted on his Facebook page on the sidelines of Ecofin. "The EU must act fairly and proportionately to mitigate the" economic "damage caused by the pandemic," he stressed, arguing that the EU plan "could pose an additional burden for smaller and less developed economies."