“The current crisis can be a great turning point in the history of the European Union,” Mateusz Morawiecki said in an op-ed piece published by the euractiv.com website on Wednesday.
“However, we must remember that the recovery fund should correspond with all real economic problems of the member states, with their specificity, expectations and current needs,” he added.
The European Union’s executive last month unveiled a EUR 750 billion proposal to prop up economies battered by the coronavirus.
The new recovery fund, dubbed "Next Generation EU," includes EUR 500 billion in grants and EUR 250 billion in loans for member states, with the money borrowed on financial markets and repaid from the bloc's budget.
Amid the pandemic, Poland stands to receive more than EUR 63 billion from EU coffers in grants and loans under the plan, according to estimates.
Morawiecki said in his op-ed piece, entitled “United We Can Do More,” that experts believed the COVID-19 pandemic was "much more extensive than other diseases of this kind which emerged after World War II."
He called for "an ambitious and decisive response" to the economic fallout from the pandemic, while also saying that the coronavirus crisis should "provide a lever for development” in Europe.
He also argued that the continent needed “a real stimulus for economic growth” and that “the most important task is to create a strong investment impulse” across the EU.
The Polish prime minister last month urged stepped-up investment in Europe to stimulate economies and help them recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Morawiecki in April called for a “new Marshall Plan” for Europe to aid the continent’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that the new recovery plan aims to turn "the immense challenge we face into an opportunity, not only by supporting the recovery but also by investing in our future."
(gs/pk)
Source: euractiv.com
