“Saving lives and supporting livelihoods in these times of acute crisis is paramount. The Commission is further increasing its response by proposing to set up a €100 billion solidarity instrument called SURE to help workers keep their incomes and help businesses stay afloat. It is also proposing to redirect all available structural funds to the response to the coronavirus”. The Commission today presented a proposal that was announced yesterday by President Ursula von der Leyen. “Farmers and fishermen will also receive support, as will the most deprived. All of these measures are based on the current EU budget and will squeeze out every available euro. They show the need for a strong and flexible long-term EU budget”. The Commission will work to ensure that the Union “can count on such a strong budget to get back on its feet and progress on the path to recovery”. The coronavirus pandemic “is testing Europe in ways that would have been unthinkable only a few weeks ago. The depth and the breadth of this crisis requires a response unprecedented in scale, speed and solidarity”.