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Quoted By:
https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/europes-quiet-debt-revolution/
For decades, Brussels prided itself on fiscal restraint. Today, it sits among Europe’s biggest debtors – a position that will be worsened by last week’s EU decision to grant Ukraine €90 billion in financial support over the next two years.
Since the pandemic, the European Commission has transformed itself from a marginal issuer into one of the continent’s largest sovereign and supranational borrowers. Its outstanding debt has ballooned from roughly €50 billion in 2019 to an estimated €700 billion by 2025 – a shift that has received surprisingly little scrutiny given its long-term implications for markets, budgets, and EU politics.
This change did not happen overnight. Before Covid-19, common EU borrowing was largely theoretical. The first meaningful issuances came during the euro-area sovereign-debt crisis of 2011–13, when outstanding EU debt rose to about €55 billion. For the next decade, issuance remained a footnote in European capital markets.
For decades, Brussels prided itself on fiscal restraint. Today, it sits among Europe’s biggest debtors – a position that will be worsened by last week’s EU decision to grant Ukraine €90 billion in financial support over the next two years.
Since the pandemic, the European Commission has transformed itself from a marginal issuer into one of the continent’s largest sovereign and supranational borrowers. Its outstanding debt has ballooned from roughly €50 billion in 2019 to an estimated €700 billion by 2025 – a shift that has received surprisingly little scrutiny given its long-term implications for markets, budgets, and EU politics.
This change did not happen overnight. Before Covid-19, common EU borrowing was largely theoretical. The first meaningful issuances came during the euro-area sovereign-debt crisis of 2011–13, when outstanding EU debt rose to about €55 billion. For the next decade, issuance remained a footnote in European capital markets.
