Recovery Fund: Macron and Draghi want more

The European Union is worried about its Corona Recovery Fund. The culprit is the temporary halt to ratification in Germany.

The EU Commission is playing it cool: the timetable for the debt-financed aid of up to 750 billion euros is not at risk, according to Brussels.

But in Paris, Rome and in the European Parliament, the development in the largest EU country is viewed with growing unease.

After all, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, which ordered the halt, has already questioned the EU’s financial policy several times.

The German ratification freeze would lead to uncertainty in Southern Europe, warns Rasmus Andresen, a Green MEP who sits on the European Parliament’s budget committee.

“The Federal Constitutional Court should not allow itself to be harnessed to the cart of national conservatives who no longer have a political majority in the matter and now want to push through their political ideas with constitutional complaints,” Andresen said.

Warnings are also coming from Paris and Rome. France’s head of state Emmanuel Macron said at the EU video summit last Thursday that the EU must step up the pace on financial aid and increase the fund if necessary.

Italy’s new head of government Mario Draghi went even further – and called for Eurobonds. The Corona Fund could only be the first step towards European bonds with joint liability, Draghi said.

So far, only EU bonds without joint liability are planned. Each EU country should be liable according to its share of own funds, no more and no less.

In addition, Chancellor Angela Merkel has pushed through that the aid fund will expire after a few years and the debts will be repaid. How this is to happen, however, is still unclear.

Moreover, the new Corona Fund is hardly subject to parliamentary control. The European Parliament has waved it through without any major changes.

All the greater is the weight of Germany’s highest court, once again. After the Karlsruhe “hanging decision”, there is the threat of a hanging game…

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) The original post (in German) is here