EU chief warns of 'domino effect' of COVID-19 crisis

BRUSSELS - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday warned of the "domino effect" of the health crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We risk that the COVID crisis sets off a number of other crises, especially in developing countries," she told a high-level meeting on international debt architecture and liquidity.

Von der Leyen named those crises as a debt one, an education crisis and a crisis of rising inequalities both between countries and within countries.

She called for investment and action at the global level to avert the crises, asking countries to focus on two parallel strands of work -- fighting the pandemic and pursuing a green economic recovery, with the Sustainable Development Goals at its core.

In his video speech for the meeting, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for better debt relief and new creative financing for poorer nations.

"Developing countries need access to additional liquidity to respond to the pandemic, and to invest in recovery," he said.