Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich.
Photo: CNS European bishops have welcomed what they described as the solidarity shown by EU governments in agreeing the Covid-19 stimulus package. However, they warned that the process will be a failure unless it is focused on the weaker members of the bloc.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, insisted that the agreement reached by EU heads of government for a €750 billion coronavirus recovery fund was “a solution which expresses solidarity inside the European Union”.
Cardinal Hollerich said he hopes “the recovery fund will help the weakest economies, the economies most touched by the pandemic to grow, and to be there for people, for the real people who constitute the European Union, so that also the next generation can live in peace and in certain prosperity”.
Covid-19 has claimed the lives of an estimated 135,000 EU citizens and damaged the bloc’s economy, which is expected to contract by 8.3% this year.
EU leaders also agreed a €1.82 trillion budget which includes the coronavirus €750 billion. It will consist of €390 billion in grants and €360 billion in loans.
Brussels-based COMECE is made up of representatives of bishops’ conferences from the EU and maintains a structured dialogue with the EU institutions. Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor – a former general secretary of the body – is now vice-president of COMECE.