(3)Taking into account the exceptional economic and financial circumstances associated with the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), on 18 March 2020, the Governing Council decided to launch a new temporary pandemic emergency purchase programme (hereinafter the ‘PEPP’) including all the asset categories eligible under the APP. Purchases under the PEPP will be separate from, and in addition to, purchases carried out under the APP, with an overall additional envelope of EUR 750 billion until the end of 2020. The PEPP is established in response to a specific, extraordinary and acute economic crisis, which could jeopardise the objective of price stability and the proper functioning of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. Due to these exceptional, fast-evolving and uncertain circumstances, the PEPP requires a high degree of flexibility in its design and implementation compared with the APP and its monetary policy objectives are not identical to that of the APP.