EU lawmakers accuse leaders of dragging feet on virus recovery plan

The European Union’s coronavirus recession response came up lacking in the eyes of prominent EU lawmakers on Friday, even as national leaders stressed progress had been made.

“The future is built with courage,” EU parliamentarian Udo Bullmann said. “Unfortunately EU leaders were lacking in this at this crucial moment,” the centre-left politician of Germany’s Social Democrats charged.

The head of the Greens parliamentary group in the EU legislature, Philippe Lamberts, also accused national governments of deferring the problem to a later date and of acting irresponsibly.

EU heads agreed in principle to set up a recovery fund closely linked to the bloc’s next long-term budget and tasked the European Commission with generating a proposal on Thursday evening.

Virtually all details were left undecided, and stubborn differences between member state positions make a rapid solution unlikely.

Polish government spokesperson Piotr Muller hailed Thursday’s “good declaration,” but acknowledged “we have to wait for the details on how this fund would be supplied and how big would it be.”

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“What is positive is a change in attitudes,” Mueller said on radio broadcaster Wnet. “There were concerns that the EU will not undertake such actions.”

The EU leaders did sign off a 540-billion-euro (584 billion dollars) package of short-term aid that had been previously negotiated by finance ministers. It should be operational by June. (dpa)