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Macron, Merkel float ‘ambitious’ EU virus fund
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France and Germany are proposing a €500bn ($545bn; £448bn) European recovery fund to be distributed to European Union (EU) countries worst affected by COVID-19.
In talks on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that the funds should be provided as grants.
The proposal represents a significant shift in Mrs Merkel’s position.
Mr Macron said it was a major step forward and was “what the eurozone needs to remain united”.
“I believe this is a very deep transformation and that’s what the European Union and the single market needed to remain coherent,” Mr Macron said following discussions via video link.
Mrs Merkel, who had previously rejected the idea of nations sharing debt, said the European Commission would raise money for the fund by borrowing on the markets, which would be repaid gradually from the EU’s overall budget.
Grants provided by the proposed recovery fund should also be used to help finance the bloc’s investment in a greener future, the two leaders said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the proposal “acknowledges the scope and the size of the economic challenge that Europe faces”.
European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said the plan was “ambitious, targeted and welcome”.
Other EU countries must agree with the proposal, however, and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz later insisted that his country backed providing loans to member nations hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, rather than grants.
“Our position remains unchanged,” Mr Kurz wrote in a tweet, adding: “We expect the updated [EU budget] to reflect the new priorities rather than raising the ceiling.”
In EU political terms this is huge.
Chancellor Merkel has conceded a lot. She openly agreed with the French that any money from this fund, allocated to a needy EU country, should be a grant, not a loan. Importantly, this means not increasing the debts of economies already weak before the pandemic.
President Macron gave ground, too. He had wanted a huge fund of a trillion or more Euros. But a trillion Euros of grants was probably too much for Mrs Merkel to swallow on behalf of fellow German taxpayers.
The resulting compromise: a win-win for the two leaders. They hope. -BBC
President John Dramani Mahama will be joining African heads of state, business leaders, investors and innovators shaping Africa’s next chapter, at the inaugural Alamein Africa Forum scheduled to take place from 2nd to 4th October 2026 in the historic city of Alamein on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
The three-day Alamein Africa Forum is established as a permanent African Business Forum to convene biennially in Egypt.
It is to become the continent’s premier gathering where political power meets entrepreneurial prowess, bridging the established engines of African growth with the new sectors defining its future.
Co-organised by the Government of Egypt, African Export – Import Bank (Afreximbank), the African Union and AUDA-NEPAD, it is expected to bring together more than twenty (20) heads of state and government representatives alongside business leaders, bankers and development institutions.
Ghana’s President, who on 23rd September 2026 declared Ghana is open for business in New York after ringing the ceremonial closing bell at the Nasdaq Stock Market will be leading the Ghanaian delegation, to include the Minister for Trade, Agribusiness, and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu – Adjare, to the forum.
Other members of the Ghanaian delegation are the Head and Presidential Advisor for Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme, Hon. Augustus Goosie Tanoh, Ghana’s Special Envoy to the Alliance of Sahel States, Colonel Larry Gbevlo – Lartey alongside key Ghanaian private sector players.
Bringing together leaders in politics, business and policy from across the continent, the Alamein Africa Forum will provide a unique opportunity to shape Africa’s growth agenda by aligning policy and investment priorities, mobilising partnerships for implementation and strengthening financing and investment pathways.
The private sector must become an integral part of Agenda 2063, the African Union’s strategic fifty-year masterplan to transform the continent. The private sector is the core economic engine required to turn the African 2063 from an aspirational government roadmap into realized infrastructure, jobs, and value-added trade.
By Chris KONEY
News
Contractors move to site to begin construction of 120-Bed Trauma Hospital at Bole – Felix Kwakye Ofosu
Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has revealed that contractors have moved to site to begin construction of a 120-bed Specialised Trauma and Emergency Hospital at Bole in the Savannah Region.
According to the Minister, the 16,000 square metre facility will be equipped with modern medical infrastructure to provide emergency and trauma care.
The hospital will have a 24-hour Accident and Emergency Unit, trauma resuscitation bays, emergency operating theatres, an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a High Dependency Unit (HDU).
It will also include specialised trauma wards, a burns treatment unit, orthopaedic and surgical units, as well as imaging and diagnostic facilities, among others.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
