Withdrawal from the European Union

Estimates pointing to a deep recession in Greece this year and a steep rise in the national debt as a result of measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic are generating questions about what will happen once the crisis subsides and raising new debt sustainability concerns. Economists asked by Kathimerini stress that Greece is armed with weapons it did not have before.

More than 70 percent of Italians estimate that a coronavirus crisis will cause the European Union crack-up, the research has shown.

The World Bank has revised significantly its estimates of the Romanian economy's advance this year, down to 0.3 percent from 3.8 percent, as projected three months ago, but growth would gradually bounce back in the second half of 2020 and further accelerate in 2021 to 4.4 percent, according to the World Bank's economic update spring 2020.

Eurozone states that need aid from the bloc's bailout fund to tackle the coronavirus should get it quickly and be first subjected to visits from officials proposing policies like during the eurozone crisis, Germany's finance minister said.

With the eurozone economy in need of help during the coronavirus epidemic, officials have until April 9 to design a package that satisfies members with completely opposing views: those calling for joint debt issuance and those fiercely against it.

'The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a major economic shock that is already having a significant negative impact in the European Union,' EU finance ministers said in a statement.

Turkish Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan has told the ambassadors of EU countries in Ankara that Turkey is waiting for the European Commission to renew the 1996 customs union agreement.

"Your contributions in this sense are exceptionally important. We invite you to work with the business world," she said at a meeting with the EU Delegation to Turkey on Feb. 26.

It is the wont of presidents of the European Council to lock the doors when things get tough.

Following the footsteps of his predecessor European Council President Charles Michel warned last week that European leaders who are today attending an extraordinary summit will not leave Brussels until they have reached agreement on the EU's 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework.

Alternate Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, who is responsible for European affairs, on Tuesday expressed Greece's dissatisfaction over the the bloc's long-term budget for the next seven years, also known as the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, as EU funds for cohesion policy and common agricultural policy remain at low levels.

It is critical for Turkey and the United Kingdom to sign a trade deal by the end of this year in order to avoid any negative implication on the two countries' trade volume after Brexit, said Osman Okyay, the chairman of the Turkey-U.K. Business Council.