EU’s Dombrovskis: Must focus on health, jobs, worry about fiscal sustainability later

In its annual recommendations to the bloc’s 27 countries (the European Semester), the European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU member states must focus on investment in public health and protecting jobs and companies before worrying about fiscal sustainability, as cited by Reuters.

Key quotes

“This Spring semester package has been recast and streamlined to provide guidance to our Member States as they navigate their way through the storm. For this immediate phase, our focus is on investing in public health and protecting jobs and companies.” 

“Once conditions allow, we will need to strike a balance between achieving fiscal sustainability while also stimulating investment.”

Focus now remains on a rival economic recovery fund plan likely to be published by the EU hardliners, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden, later this Wednesday.

• EUR/USD: Upside faltered around 1.0960, near the 100-day SMA