EU’s von der Leyen: “Real Europe is standing up” to the coronavirus crisis

In a written interview with EURACTIV's media partner Efe, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen spoke about a broad range of issues, from the challenges facing the Eurogroup earlier this month to the expectations for the summit of European leaders this week.

Key quotes

“Business, as usual, is no more. We will need to 'bounce forward' and not 'bounce back.

And we will need to build a resilient, green and digital Europe.

At the heart of this will be our growth strategy, the European Green Deal, and the twin transition and opportunity of digitalization and decarbonization.

Europe needs a Marshall Plan for its recovery and it needs to be put in place as soon as possible. For all the reasons I just mentioned, the EU budget must be right at the heart of this.

We will put forward our proposals for the multiannual financial framework (MFF) soon and we are not yet talking specific numbers. We will have an opportunity to discuss some key principles with Leaders at next week's European Council. Speed will be of the essence.

More coordination will be needed to manage the exit of the crisis than there was at the entry of it. This is why, along with President Michel, we put forward a European roadmap to lifting containment measures.”

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