During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels (19-23 October 2020), MEPs debate EU measures to mitigate social and economic impact of Covid-19. Opening statement by Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy. The following transcription is the result of an automatic process. Check Against delivery.

Plenary session: EU measures to mitigate social and economic impact of Covid-19. Opening statement by Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy

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SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, Well, thank you. Madam President, honourable members, we all know that this crisis in eight months changed our world. We will measure its economic impact for EU with our autumn forecast in a couple of weeks. The last forecast released a few hours ago by IMF, states that the negative growth for the euro area will be in 2020. Of minus eight point three.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, Just to compare, we had a negative growth of minus four point one in 2009. So during the financial crisis, it was less than half the crisis that we could have. According to this forecast, in 2020, the social consequences will be deep and leave scars. Poverty increases, according to the World Bank, will be in the world around 120, 140 million. And this could put at risk the efforts to eradicate poverty that were done in the last 30.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, The social consequences will be deep also in our union, well beyond the numbers of increased unemployment rates, because we know that. Yes, we have an increase of unemployment rates, but we have increasing gender gap. We have difficulty situation for precarious jobs. And for children less educated. So we have deep consequences, all in all.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, This unprecedented crisis triggered unprecedented reaction and several measures, as you know, were taken by the Union, beginning with the first decision in March of having a much more flexible rules, both on the fiscal and on state aid and then easing the use of remaining cohesion funds and then the decisions of several loans, including the sure package in support of short or word schemes.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, And then the big decision of next generation EU that the Commission proposed at the end of May and the council adopted at the end of July and is now under discussion with the Parliament. So these common tools are on top of national responses. I think we should be very well aware of this and on average, these national responses amount around 4.5 percent of GDP in the Union;.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, Together member states reaction and common reaction makes our stimulus packages comparable and in some case even stronger to those of other global players. But uncertainty is still there. It is not decreasing. It is may be growing uncertainty in the last weeks for sure. We will not have a so-called V shaped recovery.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, We will have to coexist with the virus for a certain amount of time, and we have to be very clear in the effort to avoid a double dip recession, keeping supportive fiscal stance and confirming, as we did as Commission, our general escape clause for next year. So now at stake is the implementation and the quality of our decisions.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, As far as the RRF is concerned, we have to find the right balance between the national ownership, which is fundamental in this initiative. We are not writing memorandum here in Brussels for these plans. And the common priorities and the country specific recommendation. The balance will be key if we want to have a good result.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, With this recovery and resilience facility. Our goal in general and in conclusion is to transform our economy in. These terrible and difficult crisis. As always happens with crisis, should we be able to have a more sustainable, more competitive, more resilient. Shall we be able to mitigate the social consequences of these crisis and to strengthen the social pillar of our economy? I think that the commission and this parliament have not an easy task.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy, It is an enormous responsibility, but it is also the unique opportunity to contribute to better economies and better societies in Europe. Thank you.

Event date	21/10/2020
Reference:	I197681V
Format:	16:9 format
Copyright:	© European Union
copyrightYear:	2020

Plenary session: EU measures to mitigate social and economic impact of Covid-19. Opening statement by Paolo GENTILONI, European Commissioner for Economy

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