The European Commission has proposed a new short-time work scheme to help EU member states most affected by the coronavirus outbreak, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.
“Thanks to the scheme proposed by the Commission, more people will keep jobs during the epidemic, they will go back to full work as soon as the lockdown will be over,” von der Leyen explained. “The new EU scheme is crucial to restarting Europe’s economic engine.”
Market reaction
These comments failed to help the market sentiment improve on Wednesday. As of writing, the Euro Stoxx 50 Index was down 3.1% on the day while Germany’s DAX was erasing 3.5%.