EU Finance ministers agreed yesterday (Thursday) to a common emergency plan to limit the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the European economy.
EU member states have agreed to an emergency response plan of €500 billion.
“This proposal contains bold and ambitious proposals that would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago”, the Portuguese Finance minister and president of the Eurogroup Mario Centeno said in a video conference on Thursday.
“We can all remember the response to the financial crisis of the last decade, when Europe did too little too late. This time around is different.”
The proposal, he added, “implements the strong response that Europe needs”.
Shortly after they reached an agreement, finance ministers enthusiastically announced the news on social media.
“Excellent agreement between EU finance ministers on the economic response to coronavirus,” French finance minister Bruno Le Maire tweeted.
“500 billion euros will be made available immediately. A stimulus package is to come. Europe is standing up to face the seriousness of the situation.”
Le Maire added: “This is an important day for Europe.”
Source: EuroNews
UK Government medical and scientific advisers are still unsure when there will be a peak in the number of infections and fatalities.
Senior ministers are gathering for a “lockdown summit” that is expected to result in restrictions on movement being extended until May at the earliest.
Ahead of the COBRA meeting, hopes of an end to the shutdown of pubs, restaurants, shops and other businesses were all but dashed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and other senior politicians.
Mr Dowden said the COBRA meeting will “determine the process” for how the government will review the lockdown next week.
And he hinted tougher measures could follow, saying ministers will look at the evidence and determine whether to “enhance or change the measures that we are taking”.
Source: Sky News
Criminal organizations are poised to capitalize on weaknesses in an economy ravaged by the coronavirus.
“The virus has demonstrated that it doesn’t respect frontiers, and the mafia has demonstrated that it doesn’t either,” said General Giuseppe Governale, head of Italy’s Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA), an FBI-style multiforce agency. “It is like water, it moves wherever there is a gap.”
The mafia has a specific playbook for profiting from moments of crisis.
Italy’s crime syndicates, especially the ’Ndrangheta, which controls much of Europe’s lucrative cocaine trade, will be looking to offer liquidity to troubled companies in exchange for shares, said Maurizio De Lucia, the chief prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Messina.
“The mafia offers a loan to a business owner who needs money. He knows who he is dealing with but thinks he can manage the situation. He is mistaken,” said De Lucia, describing what he called “the method.”
The mafia typically then asks the business owner to hire someone, a favor the owner can hardly refuse. “This person then starts to give orders, changing products or arranging a renovation,” said De Lucia. “The owner protests, saying it is his company. But he is told, ‘Not anymore.’”
The owner is turned into a prestanome, or front man, for the mafia, which benefits from his relationship with the banks, and his books.
The mafia has already infiltrated the German economy and has a strong foothold in Spain, mainly in hotels and tourism, according to Pignedoli. There have also been infiltrations in France and Belgium.
Some criminal groups are also developing new activities to exploit the emergency, according to a report by Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency.
You can read the entire article here: Mafia plots post-coronavirus pounce
Source: Politico
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