Strategic priorities
Pandemic support underscores ESM mission
As Europe’s economy slammed into lockdown in spring 2020, and fears loomed for publicly funded healthcare systems, ESM staff worked at pace with member states to protect financial stability from the unpredictable effects of the virus through the creation of the ESM’s Pandemic Crisis Support instrument.
Worth up to €240 billion and available on favourable terms without distinction to any euro area country borrowing to cover healthcare costs incurred to fight Covid-19, the Pandemic Crisis Support delivered a powerful signal of European unity and resolve. The tool served to help calm markets and bolster confidence in all euro area sovereign borrowers – averting any repeat of the previous decade when liquidity strains led some member states to lose access to the debt market, jeopardising the integrity of the single currency.
As a significant element in an array of EU pandemic safety nets, such was the success of the ESM action in reassuring investors that all Members continued to fund themselves independently. No government ultimately chose to draw on the emergency facility, which offered low-interest loans worth up to 2% of national GDP for as long as 10 years. The Pandemic Crisis Support credit line expired at the end of 2022.
