The COVID-19 pandemic presents not only unprecedented policy challenges, tied to a looming recession of an estimated 8,3% EU GDP decline, but also a window of opportunity for urgently needed fiscal reforms. As monetary policy has reached its limits, due to historically low interest rates over the last decade, there is a revival of fiscal policy in order to deal with the consequences of the economic crisis and the resulting short-term financing needs of almost €2 trillion, including a basic investment gap of €846 billion.
The Policy Lab will be focused on two core topics that shall be complemented by other issues raised during the discussions:
The policy lab „Fiscal Policies Revised“ takes the recent recovery programs as a working base to