No COVID recovery cash without reforms, EU executive warns Reuters 2/3/2021
BRUSSELS, Feb 3 (Reuters) - European Union countries must step up economic reforms and tackle investment bottlenecks to get their share of billions of euros of COVID recovery funds, an official with the bloc s executive said on Wednesday.
The Brussels-based European Commission is due to borrow an unprecedented 750 billion euros ($900 billion) that it intends to channel into the 27 EU economies to help them rebound from a record recession triggered by the pandemic.
National capitals have until the end of April to submit their spending plans to the Commission for approval.
None of the plans submitted so far meet the executive s criteria, said Celine Gauer, a senior Commission official dealing with the stimulus, which would come on top of 1.1 trillion euros of handouts from the EU s 2021-27 budget.