Coronavirus – Finance Minister: Europe needs to support non-euro countries too

Apart from providing a credit line to countries in the euro zone, the European Commission should also “pay due attention” to supporting non-euro-zone countries, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said in a statement on Thursday.

In a crisis, euro-zone countries can resort to the European Stability Mechanism, Varga said after a teleconference of his European counterparts to discuss crisis management mechanisms.

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But the EU should also find solutions to ensure equal treatment of member states, he added.

Varga insisted that the balance of payments facility available to countries outside the euro area was “not comparable to the opportunities offered by the ESM in terms of magnitude or accessibility”. Using the latter subsidy, he added, would also involve a strict economic correction programme.

According to the statement, EU finance ministers urged the EC to make a proposal easing accessibility to that mechanism.