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Brussels Edition: Finally, some holiday plans

Brussels Edition
Bloomberg

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg's daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

In the strange age of the coronavirus, the best summer-holiday guide may come from EU technocrats. The European Commission is putting the final touches on a tourism-revival roadmap covering everything from reopening national borders to offering appealing travel vouchers for canceled flights. The package of recommendations tomorrow will reveal the fine balance between restoring transport across the EU and limiting the risk of a resurgence in virus cases. The initiative is due to include a map being prepared by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control showing the differing epidemiological situations within member nations. In short, vacation in Europe this summer may depend on the coronavirus track records of regions as much as of countries. 

Jonathan Stearns and Nikos Chrysoloras

What's Happening

Kurz's Take | The way Sebastian Kurz sees it, help from the EU may be the only way for Italy to climb out of its debt hole. The Austrian Chancellor told us in an interview that the hardest-hit country on the continent, whose debt is set to balloon to close 160% of national output, can't "handle this situation without the help of the EU and countries like Austria," while rejecting the idea of shared euro-area debt.

Virus Update | Britons are dazed and confused over their government's lockdown-easing instructions, France plans to attach strings to any injection of public money into its crisis-hit automotive industry, and Europe's reopening gathers pace. Here's the latest.

ECB's Fight | Angela Merkel may have a way around the simmering crisis caused by a ruling last week on ECB operations by Germany's highest court, which prompted threats of legal action from Brussels. The ECB could explain its asset-purchase program to the Bundesbank, which would serve as an intermediary to the German parliament, she suggested yesterday.

Pharma Clout | EU health ministers will hold a video conference today to discuss ways to prevent future medicine shortages. In a sign of how crises lead to greater EU regulatory clout, the ministers will debate possible initiatives including stockpiling requirements for pharmacies. 

Brexit Drama | Snail-paced Brexit talks continue via teleconference today, with Germany's main business lobby warning that British negotiators are not taking the U.K.'s future relationship with the EU seriously. Failure to seal an agreement by the end of this year could provoke an "economic catastrophe," according to the BDI industry federation.

In Case You Missed It

Homecoming Wave | Millions of east Europeans emigrated westward after their countries joined the EU. Now, they're rushing back home, where the economic and health impacts from the virus are milder. Here's why it matters.

Free Money | As of next week, one concrete tool of European solidarity will be available to highly indebted southern countries: credit lines of ultra-cheap cash from the euro area's bailout fund. If toxic politics doesn't let governments use the facility, the price tag for taxpayers will be huge.

Traffic Jams | Europe's drivers have started to clog up roads again in one of the first signs of a possible revival of the region's economy. For once, traffic jams may be a welcome sign, Vanessa Dezem explains

Uninhabitable Earth | More cars may be an indicator of an economic rebound, but it's the last thing our planet needs. In fact, new data shows that incidents of heat and humidity so extreme that it's beyond the "survivability threshold" of the human body are becoming more frequent.

Chart of the Day

Europe's single-currency area is in the throes of a "sudden, severe, and sychronized" drop in export demand inflicted by the global shutdown to contain the coronavirus, according to the European Commission. Demand will rebound in 2021, but only "incompletely" because of the lingering effects of the pandemic throughout the world, officials predict.

Today's Agenda

All times CET.

  • 2 p.m. EU Parliament's committee on health and the environment holds an exchange of views with Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius and Guido Rasi, executive director of the European Medicines Agency
  • Video conference of EU health ministers
  • Video conference of EU defense ministers

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