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EU heading for 5-10% economic contraction in 2020-Breton

April 24, 2020 at 04:41 am EDT

The European Union is heading this year towards a 5-10% economic contraction due to the new coronavirus outbreak, EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Friday, adding that figure could get worse if "things don't get better".

In an interview with France 2 television channel he also said he was optimistic about European leaders eventually working out the details of the trillion emergency fund they agreed upon Thursday.

"As of today, in the European Union, we're on course for a 5% to 10% (recession), meaning it's about 7.5%. But that is today, and if things don't improve and if we have a second peak (of the outbreak), things could get worse", Breton said.

"Everything hinges on the speed of the economic recovery. We're still in the midst of the pandemic and we're going to learn to live with it for several months."

Europe is facing its worst economic shock since World War Two from the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, which has also led to border closures across the bloc and left member states fighting over medical supplies.

Finding the means to support the economy have reopened bitter divisions between northern, richer EU countries and Mediterranean members of the bloc, which are also the hardest hit by the pandemic.

But Breton said sums necessary to relaunch the economic activity are so huge that everybody will end up agreeing on the details.

"Germany doesn't have the first penny to finance its own plan. It will have to borrow. Same thing for the Netherlands. And for France. Everyone will need an emergency type fund", he said

"And then, I think they will all agree, all the heads of states and governments, to define the details of this fund. We're going step by step but we're making progress."

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Thierry Breton

Thierry Breton currently works at Unify GmbH & Co. KG, as Chairman-Supervisory Board, Atos Worldline NV, as Chairman from 2013, Agence Nationale de Réglementation des Télécommunications, as Chairman from 2015, BofA Securities Europe SA, as Director from 2019, and Alliance For Societas Europaea Promotion, as President.
Mr. Breton also formerly worked at Orange SA, as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer in 2005, Vantiva SA, as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer from 1997 to 2002, Atos SE, as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer from 2012 to 2019, TSA SAS (Paris), as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer from 1997 to 2002, France Telecommunications, as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer from 2002 to 2005, Thomson Multimedia SA, as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer from 1997 to 2002, Atos International SAS, as Chief Executive Officer, Bull SA, as Chairman from 2014 to 2016, Worldline SA, as Non-Executive Chairman from 2014 to 2019, Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie, as Chairman, Conseil Régional de Poitou-Charentes, as Vice Chairman in 1992, The Poitou-Charentes Regional Council, as Vice Chairman from 1986 to 1992, Carrefour SA, as Independent Director, SATS Ltd., as Independent Non-Executive Director from 2015 to 2018, Société Nationale des Télécommunications du Sénégal, as Director, Oasis Group, Inc., as Director, Bank of America Corp., as Member-Global Advisory Council, Académie des Technologies, as Member, Atos Origin International SAS, as General Manager, Harvard Business School, as Professor, and Futuroscope de Poitiers, as Project Manager.
Mr. Breton received his undergraduate degree from École supérieure d'électricité and undergraduate degree from Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale.

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