We and our partners do the following data processing based on your consent: store and/or access information on a device, personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development EU's Covid recovery fund was 'absolutely a success': European Court of Auditors' Pierre Moscovici To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. 2020 was an annus horribilis.
Lockdowns, curfews and social distancing were the order of the day. But there was a silver lining: European countries showed themselves to be capable of great solidarity, jointly procuring vaccines and then agreeing on a mammoth post-Covid recovery fund, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). That fund has disbursed €450 billion in grants and loans to EU member states since 2021.
As the RRF enters its crucial final phase, we take stock of the situation with Pierre Moscovici, the French member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA). The ECA has just presented a report on the health of the EU's finances, which also talks about the implementation of the RRF. Moscovici says that the creation of the Covid recovery plan "was a crucial decision.
Some people, and I was one of them, had been arguing for Eurobonds, for common borrowing, in order to invest together in Europe. And this was never possible due to some political positions between member states and the EU Commission. And finally, because of Covid, this was done.
This was called Next Generation EU. It was the idea that we could borrow together some €750 billion in order to sustain growth, to be capable of facing the consequences of Covid. And this was absolutely a success.
Some countries, for example Spain or Italy, massively benefited from this fund and were able to recover swiftly." Moscovici elaborates: "The question is, is this a one-off, or should we do that again? Should it become permanent? Should it also inspire the Multiannual Financial Framework (the EU's long-term budget) that the member states and the Council are now preparing?
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