Brussels Edition: Freedom fervor

Follow Us Get the newsletter Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg's daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union. After weeks of confinement, European citizens are scrambling for the exit door. Germany is leading the way, preparing to open restaurants and even restart its Bundesliga football championship, albeit without spectators. France will unveil its plan today. The easing of restrictions is posing serious questions about whether nations are trying to do too much, too soon, raising the risk of a second wave of infections. But the economic strain is clearly becoming too heavy a load to bear. In some cases, nations eager to facilitate movement are adopting baffling policies that rival even some of the EU's most Kafkaesque regulations. —John Ainger What's Happening Forecasting Trouble | It's been barely a decade since the euro-area sovereign debt crisis, which threatened to blow up the currency zone, but now Europe's troubled south is back in the eye of the storm. The European Commission forecasts economic contractions of more than 9% in Italy, Spain and Greece this year, raising fresh questions over the state of the union. Vaccine Trials | EU health chief Stella Kyriakides and her member-country counterparts will resume talks today about coronavirus vaccines. With more than 90 in development worldwide but just a handful in clinical trials, the discussion will focus on creating a European network and, crucially, once a vaccine is approved, on securing access to it. Who Responds? | After a surprise court ruling threw another problem the way of the ECB this week and had investors worried, the key question is: who steps up to respond? Members are divided on who takes the lead on replying to the German court that declared the central bank's biggest bond-buying program potentially unconstitutional. Going Nuclear | Austria will find out today whether it stands a chance with its final attempt to overturn the European Commission's approval in 2014 of U.K. aid measures to help EDF build Britain's first new nuclear plant in decades. Why don't they like it? Laundering Action | Following a string of scandals in the EU's financial system in recent years, the commission today presents its latest plans in an ongoing crackdown on money laundering. In Case You Missed It Another Tool | As the economy spirals downward, the EU is set to unveil another weapon to stop the worst of it. Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni said it would be a pan-European tool for equities, and is likely to be backed from a pool of common funds; expect more details in the coming weeks. Polish Vote | Poland will delay Sunday's presidential election by several months, seeking to quell concerns that holding it during the brunt of the pandemic through an untested mail-in ballot system may not be free or fair. Here's the situation. Basic Income | It's a concept that has gained traction in recent months, but a landmark study conducted in Finland shows that giving the unemployed free money doesn't provide the boost to the jobs market that some had hoped it would. It does though raise happiness levels. Balkan Ambitions | The coronavirus may be putting EU enlargement on the back burner, but those at its Eastern-most corner may be set to benefit from a welcome dose of economic integration in the meantime. At China's expense. Winds of Change | Ever wondered what a wooden wind turbine looks like? Perhaps not. But standing nearly 100 feet tall on the island of Bjorko in southwest Sweden, a white wind tower looks indistinguishable from thousands of similar tubes that help generate clean energy all over the world, and it might just provide the solution to a big problem. Chart of the Day European governments that unflinchingly deployed tens of billions to prevent a catastrophic jobs crisis are now grappling with the challenge of turning off the tap on what's become one of the biggest welfare experiments in history. Removing aid before companies can afford to pay wages again could plunge millions into lasting unemployment, derail any nascent economic recovery and raise the risk of social and political unrest. Today's Agenda All times CET. 9 a.m. ECB Vice President de Guindos in European Parliament, presents central bank's annual report 9:30 a.m. The EU's top court gives a non-binding opinion in the appeal by Vivendi's Canal+ against the deal between EU antitrust regulators and Paramount Pictures to settle a probe into Hollywood film studios' contracts 9:30 a.m. The EU's top court gives a non-binding opinion in Austria's challenge against the European Commission over its 2014 decision to approve U.K. aid measures to help build the country's first new nuclear plant in two decades 11:30 a.m. Meeting of the European Parliament Conference of Presidents 12 p.m. onward European Commission news conference by Vice-President Dombrovskis on the anti-money laundering package EU health Commissioner Kyriakides holds a video conference with EU Health Ministers, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, and the European Medicines Agency Like the Brussels Edition? Don't keep it to yourself. Colleagues and friends can sign up here. We also publish the Brexit Bulletin, a daily briefing on the latest on the U.K.'s departure from the EU.  For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for full global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. How are we doing?  We want to hear what you think about this newsletter. Let our Brussels bureau chief know.   Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Brussels Edition newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022