EU borrows 750 billion euros to cope with the economic consequences of the Corona pandemic and boost the modernisation of EU member states.
The Corona crisis threatened an economic divide between the richer member countries in the north and the poorer south. "Without the instrument, we would have had a completely different discussion in Europe. [...] And in the short term, without the instrument, we could have been looking at a major divergence of economies. But the long-term economic and political damage would have been the real disaster," said Lucas Guttenberg in a radio interview with Deutschlandfunk.
By the end of April, member states must deliver their investment plans to Brussels. The European Parliament wants to examine the respective programs and monitor their implementation. Lucas Guttenberg says: "As a result, I believe that there has rarely been such a close-meshed and also politically so highly placed monitoring network for the use of European funds."