In Brussels
The decision to suspend the stability pact had been in the air for several days. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed it in a video posted on Twitter on Friday afternoon. " Today and this is new and has never been done before, we are triggering the general notwithstanding clause. This means that national governments can inject as much into the economy as they need to. We are relaxing the fiscal rules to allow them to do so. "
Read also: Annelies Wilder-Smith: "Europe must prepare for post-containment"
The coronavirus crisis, which paralyzes the world economy and paralyzes populations, will therefore have shattered part of the Brussels doctrine and the sacrosanct stability pact which limits public deficits to 3% of GDP and to 60 % of GDP public debt. Concretely, this means that the recommendations which had been formulated by Brussels last year against the Member States - including France and Italy - to return to the nails of the pact are suspended until further notice.
European governments have stepped up rescue plans in recent weeks as whole sectors are shut down and population containment is tightening. Strongly attacked for having delayed taking stock of the coronavirus crisis, the European Commission has been chaining initiatives for a few days. After easing the state aid regime, Ursula von der Leyen was on Friday in favor of coronabonds, a European funding tool that is causing friction between certain member states. " I said that you would do everything necessary to support Europeans and the European economy, " promised the President of the Commission, welcoming the measures announced this week by the European Central Bank.