Czechia to get nearly 20 million euros from EC recovery fund

The Czech Republic should get almost 20 billion euros from the European Commission’s special recovery fund to restart economies hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, the Czech News Agency reported on Thursday, citing a draft of the plan.

The European Commission on Wednesday called for a 750 billion euro recovery fund, a third of which would help Italy and Spain – the countries most affected by the epidemic. The commission plans to borrow the whole sum in financial markets.

Out of the sum, 19.2 billion euros should be allocated to the Czech Republic, while direct payments from the EU funds are to amount to 8.6 billion and the remaining 10.6 billion would be loans with advantageous interest rates.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said on Thursday he didn’t agree with unemployment playing a significant role in the aid distribution. He said that states that managed to keep low unemployment even during the crisis should not be penalised.

Author: Ruth Fraňková