European Union forecasts recession this year

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The European Union predicts a recession for 2020, said today the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton, without giving an estimate of its size, but predicting that the global impact of the coronavirus on European growth will be between 2 and 2.5 percent.

"Before the crisis, a growth of about 1.4 percent was predicted for the entire continent. We think we will have an impact between 2 and 2.5 percent on that growth," Breton said, according to European media.

As assumed, this would be a recession of at least one percent.    

Breton said that European countries can immediately apply the regulations of the European Stability Pact to deal with the crisis.

"We will strictly adhere to the stability pact, which allows for exceptions from the rules in cases of force majeure," said Commissioner Breton.

Asked about the possibility of a European recovery plan, Breton assessed that it is too early to talk about it in detail, but hinted that such a plan might be possible at the appropriate time, media report, as stated by Radio Free Europe.