Meeting European Council President Charles Michel

The global economy continues to change rapidly due to technological, demographic as well as environmental change. Economic times are not getting easier. The coronavirus outbreak could slash global economic growth to 1.5 per cent in 2020. Europe will not be spared as COVID-19 could push some member states into recession. Policy coordination and coherence is more important than ever to ensure that the European Union successfully tackles the short-term and long-term challenges it is facing.

These were the key messages by Markus Beyrer, BusinessEurope Director General, in a meeting with the European Council President Charles Michel and the European social partners on 12 March.

As well as providing supportive monetary and fiscal policies, it is essential that both member states and the EU provide direct support to companies with viable long-term business models which are experiencing short-term liquidity or solvency issues as a result of the coronavirus itself, or due to responsible action taken to prevent the spread of the virus.

The immediate challenges created by COVID-19 come on top of the need to progress towards an economically viable greening of our economy.  While supporting the goal of moving as fast as possible to a climate-neutral economy, BusinessEurope calls on the proposed Green Deal to pay stronger attention to preserving companies competitiveness.

Photo: © European Union, 2020