Poor stay poor, rich get richer? Virus aid weighs on EU market competition

Germany accounts for more than half of the emergency coronavirus state aid approved by the EU executive, prompting concerns that countries with the deepest pockets might be getting an unfair advantage in the bloc's single market.

Ensuring a competitive level playing field within its cherished single market of some 450 million people is a central EU tenet and has long been a key condition for opening up to foreign players from China to, more recently, Brexit Britain.

But the executive European Commission suspended the normally-strict state aid restrictions in mid-March, allowing the 27 EU states to pump cash into their economies and companies battered by coronavirus, with more than 1.9 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion) worth of national schemes approved so far.

It is not an even game, however, as richer or less indebted states have more scope to channel funds.

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