(Bloomberg) -- European Union finance ministers agreed on a 540 billion-euro ($590 billion) package of measures to combat the economic fallout of the global pandemic, putting to rest concerns that the bloc would fail to unify behind a common strategy.
In an emergency teleconference on Thursday, they approved a plan to stave off what’s expected to be a recession of unprecedented size. The cornerstone of the proposal will be to employ the European Stability Mechanism, the euro area’s bailout fund, to offer credit lines worth as much as 240 billion euros.
While important, the agreement by the finance ministers is only one step toward the the adoption of such a package; the bloc’s leaders will have to debate, fine tune and eventually endorse the plan. That meeting could happen as soon as next week.
The pandemic has overwhelmed Europe, with the continent suffering more than 65% of the worldwide deaths attributable to the virus. German Chancellor Angela Merkel even called the threat the EU ‘s biggest challenge since its founding, and it’s one that has laid bare the bloc’s political fault lines and is testing each member state’s commitment to solidarity.
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