Gentiloni: "No to a war with the US on state aid"

BRUSSELS - "We must sustain our competitiveness and

".

Thus the European Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni, before the meeting of EU Economy Ministers (Ecofin format) who met in Brussels.

With the US "we have a very important collaboration, perhaps one of the strongest in recent decades", but at the same time "we must be aware of the fact that this crisis has particularly serious consequences for the European economy", he continued.

The head of the Economy underlined the need to streamline the European rules on state aid

, but "we also need common funding because the scale to strengthen our competitiveness in various sectors must be a scale European Union,

."

Gathered in the Belgian capital, the 27 EU ministers will discuss the progress of the recovery and resilience plan facilities.

European Commission Executive Vice President

told reporters that "disbursement should be peak this year" and that "Member States need to work to adjust their plans to include chapters related to Repower EU and to address the current challenges".

Also on the agenda is the disbursement of

under our just approved macro-financial assistance programme.

The first Ecofin of the year will be chaired by Swedish minister Elisabeth Svantesson as a member of the country's government who leads the rotating presidency of the EU Council.

"One of the most important tasks for Sweden this spring will be the

: it's important so that we can really be stronger in one, two, five, ten years than we are today," said Svantesson.

"It will be difficult but I think it will be good for us to work on it and I hope to collaborate with the Commission and with all countries so that we can reach a conclusion," he added.

"Today at Ecofin we won't have this problem which will arise in February - she said - but it will be one of my priorities in the spring".