EU lawmakers back aid for virus-hit economy in remote vote – Reuters

After 12 hours of heated discussion between the Members of the European Parliament, the bloc’s policymakers agreed to avail emergency funds to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic amid the initial Friday morning in Asia, as per Reuters.

Key quotes

It was the parliament’s first ever remote vote following the suspension of meetings due to the risk of coronavirus transmission.

Only a handful of lawmakers gathered in the Brussels plenary chamber with the most of the 688 participating MEPs scattered under lockdown across Europe.

Wearing white, latex protective gloves, she called on the chamber to vote into law a special 37-billion-euro ($40.8 billion) fund to allow the 27 member states to spend more to prop up their economies.

The legislation will also allow an existing natural disaster fund to support strained public health services across the EU.

The assembly also supported the suspension of a rule that strips airlines of their landing slots if they do not run most of their scheduled services - so as to ease an industry crisis unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic.

FX implications

The news failed to provide any major market moves as investors are more concerned with the US House voting and virus numbers. Even so, the EUR/USD remains positive by the press while taking rounds to 1.1036. Further, the market’s trade sentiment seems to have stopped the previous risk-on as the US stock futures are making losses near 0.50% in contrast to Wall Street’s third day of gains by the end of Thursday.