Johan Van Overtveldt on Merkel and Macron’s recovery plan: “There has to be solidarity, but there also has to be responsibility.”

“You cannot deny that there must be solidarity. Some countries have been hit harder than others. But you can never have sustained solidarity without responsibility.” MEP Johan Van Overtveldt explained in De Ochtend on Radio 1 why the N-VA also opposes the European emergency fund that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron presented yesterday.

Throwing billions around

Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden have already rejected the EUR 500 billion recovery plan. The N-VA shares this view. “The question is whether the fund’s resources are to be considered as loans or grants. I’m against donations on principle. You can’t say: “We are going to throw a few billion around”. We have had a good learning experience in Belgium in recent decades: there has to be solidarity, but there also has to be responsibility.”