Publications

21 April 2020

COVID-19: The Path to Recovery - A Strong MFF and an Unprecedented Investment Plan

  • The crisis triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak is expected to be amongst the most violent ever, with social consequences aggravated by its very nature. It has clearly shown how crucial the provision of public services and SGIs, such as healthcare, water, energy, waste management, telecommunications, education, housing and transport, is to the well-being of citizens and the economic resilience of the EU.
  • The EU must play a fundamental role in coordinating the macro-economic response to the COVID-19 crisis, relying on a well-designed Multi-Financial Framework (MFF) allowing the materialisation of a fully-fledged unprecedented investment plan, as well as a dedicated Recovery Fund and related tools.
  • CEEP believes that the EU institutions must step up their efforts and progress to agree on a revamped MFF 2021-2027, adapted to the challenge of the COVID-19 crisis, and relying on:
    • A genuine rethinking of cohesion policy: Cohesion policy must help regions, and additional simplification and more flexibility is needed, whilst ensuring the funds are now directed more towards social infrastructures (healthcare in particular).
    • A focus on the agreed priorities: the MFF must be fit for the future challenges, such as developing the right mitigation and adaptation strategies in the fight against climate change and the fast digitalisation development of our economy and society.
    • New approaches to address the immediate priorities: temporarily lifting the maximum budget cap in the MFF could give the Commission extra capacity to borrow on financial markets to help underwrite spending and investments over the first three years of the MFF.
  • In the context of the Recovery Fund, the EU should set up an effective set of measures oriented to future-proof and sustainable investment. This approach is the only way to allow a genuine capacity of sharing the burden of the crisis, via either “Recovery bonds” or “European Health Bonds”, with a clear and defined common objective and subject to jointly-agreed guidelines.
  • Counter-cyclical investment is the key element to build resilience and re-instate growth, in consonance with promoting climate neutrality and enhancing social fairness. Investment in research and innovation, as well as in social infrastructure must be a priority. The EU’s ability to boost and coordinate these investments will largely define our competitiveness and leadership in the post-crisis world.
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