Reuters

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday the next seven-year EU budget linked to a recovery fund was the only way to steer the bloc out of the COVID-19 crisis and that its size had to increase.

European Union leaders asked the executive Commission to urgently work out a plan for joint EU financing of the bloc's economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, the chairman of EU leaders Charles Michel said on Thursday.

He said the leaders wanted the Commission to link the recovery plan with the EU's next long-term budget for 2021-2027.

The head of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde warned European Union leaders on Thursday about the risk of doing too little and too late to shield the economy from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, an official said.

The European Union is aiming to launch a recovery fund on Jan 1, 2021 in the best case scenario, an EU official said on Thursday.

Spain has proposed the creation of a fund of up to 1.5 trillion euros ($1.62 trillion) financed by perpetual debt. 

[Reuters]

Greece's current account balance showed a larger deficit in February compared to the same month last year, on the back of a wider trade gap and a deteriorated balance in the primary income account, the Bank of Greece said on Tuesday.
Central bank data showed the deficit at 1.138 billion euros ($1.23 billion) from a deficit of 1.015 billion euros in February 2019.

The European Union's next long-term budget should be used to sponsor economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, the heads of the bloc's Brussels-based institutions said on Wednesday.

Greece opened books for a new seven-year bond issue, Refinitiv's capital markets news service IFR, reported on Wednesday.

Guidance was set at mid-swaps plus 230 basis points.

An agreement among eurozone finance ministers on further joint measures to support their economies through the coronavirus crisis is within reach, France's finance minister said on Thursday.

Turkey's confirmed cases of coronavirus increased by 4,056 in the last 24 hours, and 96 people have died, taking the death toll to 908, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday.

The total number of recovered cases stood at 2,142, with 296 recoveries in the last 24 hours, and the number of tests carried out in that time was 28,578, the highest number yet, Koca said on Twitter.

Europe should not get hung up on the idea of issuing coronabonds through a specially created European rescue fund, ECB President Christine Lagarde said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday.
"I don't think that we should get fixated on 'coronabonds'. In Europe, things take a bit more time than we would like, but we always find a solution," she told French daily Le Parisien.