Nothing done to the Eurogroup, no joint conclusions

2020-03-24T20:21:40.551Z

Nothing done to the Eurogroup tonight. The ministers ended their meeting without being able to draw up a document of conclusions, which would show the way to the options on the table that EU leaders will be able to consider on Thursday. Understanding, therefore, distant in Brussels on the tools that the EU could put in place to stem the devastating effects of the coronavirus on the economy of the continent. An agreement was not reached at the meeting of the euro area finance ministers, postponing the issue to the leaders' summit scheduled for conference on Thursday. Before the meeting began, Eurogroup President Mario Centeno ensured that Member States and eurozone institutions are engaged in an "unprecedented" effort to respond to the economic and financial impact of the Coronavirus crisis. "Our goal is to create new lines of defense for the euro to prevent this economic crisis from turning into financial. My goal is to present solutions to leaders at Thursday's summit, without neglecting any possibility of moving forward," he said. called Centeno. Italy, with the support of France, Spain, Portugal and Greece, asks European partners to make use of the fund to save States without conditionality given the exceptional nature and seriousness of the situation. The conditions for obtaining a MES credit line cannot be the current ones, argues the South front. But Holland and Germany face the wall and remain opposed to unconditional forms of financial support. The use of the Mes could unlock the ECB's 'bazooka', or the possibility of potentially unlimited purchases of sovereign bonds by Frankfurt. Hypotheses that Berlin and The Hague currently exclude, considering the intervention of the ECB announced last week by Christine Lagarde already sufficient. From Berlin came a clear rejection of the proposal on coronabonds launched by Giuseppe Conte. German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier called "a phantom debate" that on the possibility of issuing securities guaranteed by all European countries to face the health and economic crisis of the pandemic.