EU alliance calls for green recovery plan

"Political will is here," the letter adds.

Alongside with a dozen EU ministers, the letter was co-signed by MEPs, business associations, the European Trade Union Confederation, NGOs, think tanks, as well as leaders of big companies such as Ikea, H&M, Lego, or Microsoft.

"After the crisis, the time will come to rebuild," their statement reads, calling for green recovery investment packages that can push the transition towards climate neutrality.

"This is not a matter of creating a new economy from scratch. We already have all the tools and many new technologies," it also says.

According to the director of the European branch of NGO World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Ester Asin, "the broad support for this statement clearly shows that Europe's response to the Covid-19 crisis must put us firmly on the path to a truly sustainable, climate-neutral and just economy".

Following the last European summit and the agreement of European finance ministers last Thursday, the letter calls for an EU-wide green recovery strategy has gained ground politically.

Despite the resilience of some countries, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, half of member states have signed a separate open letter urging the EU to ensure its commitment to the Green Deal.

The statement was signed by the environment ministers of Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Germany, France and Greece - while Flemish nationalists in Belgium blocked the action at national level.

In this letter, ministers also urged to "withstand the temptations of short-term solutions in response to the present crisis that risk locking the EU in a fossil fuel economy for decades to come".

According to the European Commission, "green investments will be a key driver of the recovery, not an obstacle to it".

"The economic recovery and the transition to a sustainable and climate-neutral economy go hand in hand," the commission told EUobserver.

According to the commission, the recently-announced climate law was, in fact, designed to avoid that climate action is side-lined by more pressing and immediate challenges.