EU, US promote economic recovery

Leaders at the EU summit in Brussels - Belgium on July 18 Photo: Reuters

The leaders of the European Union (EU) on July 18 entered the second meeting in an attempt to find a common voice on the plan to support the economies affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The EU is discussing a budget of more than 1,000 billion euros for the period 2021-2027 and a restoration fund of 750 billion euros for the countries hardest hit by the Covid-19 epidemic.

According to Reuters, leaders of EU countries still have significant disagreements about which countries contribute to the recovery fund, which countries receive support money and suffer what conditions. For example, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte requires a country to prevent funds from recovering from disbursement if the country wants to receive money that does not accept economic reform.

In the US, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on July 17 urged Congress to work with the administration of President Donald Trump to approve additional economic stimulus packages later this month. The new money will be used to support industries most impacted by the Covid-19 epidemic as well as smaller businesses and low- and middle-income families.

Mr. Mnuchin also said that should continue the salary protection program but focus on supporting areas such as restaurants, hotels and tourism.

Meanwhile, the world is constantly witnessing new sad milestones related to the Covid-19 pandemic, such as the number of Covid-19 cases globally over 14 million today. In addition, according to Reuters statistics, this is the first time the world recorded 1 million new Covid-19 cases in less than 100 hours after the total number of cases reached 13 million on 13-7.