The European Union (EU) must strengthen the economies of the member states by securing investment and promoting solidarity between member states to overcome the consequences of Covid-19, Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (JV) emphasized in an interview on CNN International’s Quest Means Business program on Wednesday, July 1.
“[Covid-19 izraisītā] the crisis is fundamentally different from the crisis we experienced more than 10 years ago, which required us to keep spending tight. Latvia borrows money and invests in the economy, other countries do the same. We are implementing a number of reforms to make public administration more efficient and improve the business environment, ”said Kariņš.
He also pointed out the need to think at EU level about investment and national solidarity in these full-time challenges. “We are moving in this direction, as evidenced by the European Commission’s proposal to create a 750 billion euro Economic Recovery Fund,” said Kariņš.
The Prime Minister added that the most important thing is to agree on the investment of these funds in a thoughtful and smart way, so that the EU economies would be much stronger in the aftermath of the crisis than before the pandemic, because a large part of investments are borrowed and will have to be repaid.
Speaking about Latvia’s experience in the fight against Covid-19, the Prime Minister emphasized that by purposefully controlling the spread of Covid-19, the government has consistently listened to the opinion of scientists and epidemiologists.
“It simply came to our notice then. When the ‘two and two’ principle had to be introduced, we did so before we experienced the first victim of a coronovirus disease. We acted quickly by listening to the experts. When the situation improved, also after listening to the experts, we gradually reduced the introduced restrictions, which, of course, benefit the economy, ”the Prime Minister said in an interview with Richard Quest.
When asked about travel restrictions, Kariņš answered that Latvia initially created a safe movement area with Estonia and Lithuania, which is now actually expanded almost within the entire EU. At present, the EU is gradually extending it to countries recognized as epidemiologically safe, ie Covid-19 has approximately the same prevalence as the EU.
“I would like to emphasize that such a situation – thanks to the concerted action of the society and cooperation with the government in the implementation of restrictions, Latvia has a low level of infection, which allows for a greater resumption of economic activity – is currently. We follow the situation outside Latvia and elsewhere in the world very closely and understand that a new wave of infection can occur at any time. We are ready at any time, if necessary, to return to the restrictions to stop the spread of the infection. We are clearly aware that the Covid-19 pandemic is not over, ”Kariņš emphasized.
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