The crisis management instruments proposed by the European Commission were discussed at the latest videoconference meeting of EU finance ministers, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga told the press following the meeting.

“It is in the interests of the whole European Union to pay suitable attention to supporting countries that fall outside the eurozone, in addition to the credit lines being afforded to eurozone countries”, the Hungarian Minister said.

“One of the crisis management instruments available to the eurozone member states is the European Stabilisation Mechanism (ESM) flexibility tool”, Mr. Varga pointed out, explaining that in addition to this tool the European Union must search for solutions that assure equal opportunities for member states.

“The so-called balance of payments (BoP) assistance available to member states that fall outside the eurozone cannot be compared to the opportunities afforded by the ESM with relation to either its conditions or order of magnitude, in addition to which its application would also require a strict economic adjustment program, and for this reason European Union finance ministers had already called for the Commission to put forward a proposal on making the access conditions as flexible as possible at their previous meeting”, the Hungarian Minister of Finance told the press.

“Other crisis management instruments were also discussed at the meeting, including the COVID-19 guarantee fund to be established by the European Investment Bank (EIB) with a counterguarantee by member states, which according to the EIB’s plans would realise the placement of some 200 billion euros for the European SME sector. The finance ministers also exchanged views on ideas relating to restoring the economy, with relation to which we pointed out that it will only be possible to produce an upturn if cohesion funding, which represents the only calculable resource for Hungary and similar member states within the field of economic convergence, is given suitable emphasis in the EU’s next multiannual financial framework”, Mr. Varga stated.

(Ministry of Finance/MTI)